Huck Finn - Summary

In chapters thirty seven and thirty eight Huck and Tom continue their quest to make a "good" prisinor out of Huck. In order to do so, according to Tom, they needed many items such as: tin pans, a ladder made out of a sheet, candles to write with, and a spoon to scratch messages on the tin pans with, and even a few shingles. Once again, Huck jumps aboard with Tom's plan and helps him "borrow" these things from Aunt Sally and Uncle Silas. They both think they won't notice these few things gone, but as they sit down to supper one night, they realize they've made a bad mistake. Aunt Sally starts aggrivating Uncle Silas for not keeping track of his shirts. He says that he knows it was on the clothes-line, because he has never lost a shirt while he was wearing it. They come to the conclusion that the cow must have took it. Aunt Sally then brings up that quite a few of her candles are gone. Uncle Silas comes to the conclusion that the rats must have taken them, and he agrees to fill the rat holes the next day. Then, she notices one of her spoons is gone, but Huck and Tom play a sort of trick on her where they take the spoon and count them so it comes out to nine, and then put it back when she's not looking so when she counts it again it comes out to ten. Finally, she becomes so confused that she doesn't know if there is one missing or not. They do the same thing with the sheet that went missing off the line. The last thing they took, a shingle, falls out of the brim of Silas's hat, but he doesn't notice, so they were off the hook on that one.

Huck and Tom feel bad for the trouble they have caused between Tom's Aunt and Uncle, and to sort of make it up to them, they decide to fill the rat holes for Silas. It was a good deed, but it only confused Silas even more because he never remembers filling them.

The following night they take the sheet they stole off the line and make a ladder out of it for Jim. In order to get it to Jim they need to bake it into a pie. They tried several times and finally the pie turned out so it actually looked like a real edible pie. They took the pie, the candles, and the rest of the objects and placed them in the bottom of the basket of food that would be taken to Jim. All in all their plan worked out quite well.

At the end of the two chapters, Huck and Tom visit Jim at night. They try to explain how to use all these things and why it is necessary. It is ironic because Jim is the uneducated one, yet he is the only one who knows how rediculous all these things are. They also ask him to try to grow a flower in his room and water it with his tears. Tom then asks if he wouldn't mind having a rattle snake as a pet. Jim bawks at the idea, for he does not like rattle snakes. Instead, they both agree upon gardner snakes. Tom also asks if he would like a spider, but Jim says he hates spiders and would rather have the gardner snakes. Tom also suggests rats, but Jim says they are too much of a bother, like when they nibble on your toes when you're trying to sleep. Tom says he needs a pet like this because, once again, all the great prisinors had a weird pet that they trained to love them, keep them company, and even do tricks.

At the very end, Jim admits that his behavior was not good, and that he will try to listen to Tom and Huck more.