Huckleberry Finn Chapter 12

Huck and Jim travel all night on the raft and finally stop on the Illinois shore. They stay there all day and are thankful that no one found them out. Jim makes a wigwam on the raft for when it rains. They make an extra oar, a dirt mound to make a fire on, and a stick to hang a lantern on.

Huck and Jim make a habit of traveling the river at night and resting by day. They spend the next couple of nights going down the river.

Every so often when they are by a village, Huck will go into a cornfield and borrow food.

"Mornings, before daylight, I slipped into corn fields and borrowed a watermelon, or a mushmelon, or a punkin, or some new corn, or things of that kind. Pap always said it warn't no harm to borrow things, if you was meaning to pay them back, sometime; but the widow said it warn't anything but a soft name for stealing, and no decent body would do it." Chapter 12, pg. 72

There is a big storm one night and they see a steamboat that crashed against a rock. Huck wants to go on it and explore it, but Jim is against doing that. He eventually gives in to Huck because Huck says there might be some money on the boat they can collect. They go on, but they see a light and hear voices. Jim gets nervous and says he's going back to the raft, but Huck stays to listen. He crawls to where he can see the men. He sees two men (one with a gun and the other with the light) standing over a man that is tied up on the floor. The man with the gun wants to shoot the man on the floor, but the other man standing doesn't want him to. They walk over to where Huck is, so he hides. He hears them talk some more. They decide to gather the money from the boat along with some other goods, and then move onto their own boat, allowing the wreck with the tied up man to wash away down the river.

Huck yells Jim's name out and tells him that there are murderers on the boat. He says that they need to find the men's boat and shove it off so they can't get away.

"'Quick, Jim, it ain't no time for fooling around and moaning; there's a gang of murderers in yonder, and if we don't hunt up their boat and set her drifting down the river so these fellows can't get away from the wreck, there's one of 'em going to be in a bad fix. But if we find their boat we can put all of 'em in a bad fix - for the Sheriff 'll get 'em . . . '" Chapter 12, pg. 77

Topic Tracking: Humanity 2

Huck tells Jim to get their raft, but Jim says it broke loose and is gone.