My name's Huckleberry Finn, or Huck to my friends, and I come from St. Petersburg, a town on the Mississippi River. This is a story about me and my adventures on a raft down the river.
There's another story, too, called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Tom Sawyer's my friend and we have great fun together. At the end of the story with Tom, we find some money in a cave. It's a lot of money - $12,000 - that's $6,000 each!
But Judge Thatcher takes our money and puts it in the bank. Now we get interest on our money – a dollar a day each – more than we know what to do with!
My mother is dead and I don't know where my father is but I'm a happy boy. I sometimes wear rags and I like living in a barrel by the river but everyone says I can't do that anymore.
So I go to live with a nice old woman called Widow Douglas in her big house. She wants me to be her son and she wants me to be a nice, clean boy. So I sleep in a bed and I wear nice clothes. She reads me stories and I eat at the table but sometimes I really miss my old life. All I really want to do is wear my old rags and sleep in my barrel, but my friend, Tom Sawyer, says I have to be good.
Then her sister, Miss Watson, comes to live with us too. She's tall and thin and she wears glasses. She always shouts at me and tells me what to do.
“Don't put your feet on the table, Huckleberry!” and “Sit nicely at the table, Huckleberry!”
I don't like Miss Watson very much. She always says prayers before dinner.
Miss Watson has a black slave. He's a big, strong man called Jim. I like Jim.
One night, I'm in my bedroom looking out of the window. I hear a noise. I jump out of the window and see Tom Sawyer. We run along the path.
Then we see Jim sitting by the kitchen door. He gets up and shouts, “Who's there?” We don't move. Tom and I wait and then Jim falls asleep with his hat on!
Then we run to the top of the hill and find Joe Harper and Ben Rogers and some more boys. We have some great adventures that night. Tom wants us to be a band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer's Gang. We all promise never to tell anyone our secrets. I go back to my bedroom exhausted – my clothes all dirty!
Miss Watson is very angry with me the next morning but Widow Douglas isn't. She cleans my clothes and doesn't say a word.
I'm worried about my Pap (that's what I call my father). I don't know where he is. Some people say he drowned in the river but I don't think so. But I continue going to school. I learn to read and write. At first I hate school but slowly I start to like it. I even like living with Widow Douglas too.
One winter day, after breakfast, I go into the garden and I see some footprints in the snow. I look around but I don't see anybody. But I know it's him – my Pap.
So I go to Jim because he has a magic ball. I tell him Pap is here again. “What does he want to do?” and “Does he want to stay?” I ask Jim. He looks at his ball and says something. He listens to it. Then he says, “Your father doesn't know what to do.”
But that night when I go to my bedroom there he is – Pap is back!
I stare at him. His hair is long and dirty. He's wearing rags. His face is white.
“Look at your new clothes!” he says.
“They're from Widow Douglas,” I reply.
“You go to school. Do you think you're better than your father?” he continues.
“No,” I reply “but I'm learning to read.”
“Well, I can't read and you don't need to read. I hear you have money. I need money.”
“I haven't got any money. Judge Thatcher has got it. Here, I only have one dollar.” I say, giving him the coin.
Then he goes. The next day he goes to Judge Thatcher but he doesn't get my money. Judge Thatcher and Widow Douglas try to stop Pap from taking me away but there's nothing they can do. He stays around. He gets drunk. I go to school.
Then one day he takes me up the river in a boat. After about three miles we stop. There's a wood but no houses, only a log cabin. We live there. He locks the door at night and he has a gun. We fish and sometimes he goes to town but he always locks me in the cabin.
Two months pass. I have no books and my clothes are dirty and like rags again. I like the cabin. I think about Widow Douglas's house. I like fishing in the river and living in the forest but Pap beats me and I have lots of bruises. Then he goes away for three days and locks me in the cabin. I'm very lonely. I'm scared0 so I decide to escape.
There isn't a window and the door is locked, but one day I find an old saw so I start to make a hole in the cabin wall. Then Pap comes back so I hide it under a blanket. Pap is angry and talks and talks, then he drinks some whisky and falls asleep.
The next morning, Pap sends me out to get fish for breakfast. I see a canoe on the river. There's nobody inside. I look around. Pap is in the cabin. So I jump in the canoe and hide it. That night Pap goes out but he leaves the gun. I take the saw and finish the hole in the wall. I take some food and other things and get out. I have a plan.
I find a pig and kill it. Then I put its blood around the cabin. Pap must think I'm dead. Then I get in the canoe and go down the river.
