 Chapter 43 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or how to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. Chapter 43 Chapter and the Last The first time I catched time private, I asked him what was his idea time of the evasion. What it was he planned to do if the evasion worked all right and he managed to set a nigger free that was already free before. And he said, what he had planned in his head from the start, if we got Jim out all safe was for us to run him down the river on the raft and have adventures plumb to the mouth of the river and then tell him about his being free and take him back up home on a steamboat in style and pay him for his lost time and rightward ahead and get out all the niggers around and have them waltz him into town with a torchlight procession and a brass band and then he would be a hero and so would we. But I reckon it was about as well the way it was. We had Jim out of the chains in no time and when Aunt Polly and Uncle Silas and Aunt Sally found out how good he helped the doctor nurse Tom, they made a heap of fuss over him and fixed him up prime and give him all he wanted to eat and a good time and nothing to do. And we had him up to the sick room and had a high talk and Tom give Jim $40 for being prisoner for us so patient and doing it up so good and Jim was pleased most to death and busted out and says, oh no hug, what I tell you, what I tell you up down Jackson Island. I told you I got a hairy breast and what's the sign on it. And I told you I've been rich once and I'm going to be rich again and it's come true. And here she is. Now, don't talk to me signs and signs might not tell you. And I know just as well and I'm going to be rich again as I stand in here this minute. And then Tom, he talked along and talked along and says, let's all three slide out of here one of these nights and get an outfit and go for howling adventures amongst the engines over in the territory for a couple of weeks or two. And I says, all right, that suits me, but I ain't got no money for to buy the outfit and I reckon I couldn't get none from home because it's likely PAP's been back before now and got it all away from Judge Thatcher and drunk it up. No, he ain't Tom says, it's all there yet, $6,000 and more and your PAP ain't ever been back since. And when I come away anyhow, Jim says kind of solemn, he ain't coming back no more. I says, why Jim, never mind why Huck, but he ain't coming back no more. But I kept at him. So at last he says, don't you remember the house that was floating down the river and there was a man in there, give it up. And I went and un-give it him and didn't let you come in. Well, then you can get your money when you want it because that was him. Tom's most well now and got his bullet around his neck on a watchguard for a watch and is always seeing what time it is. And so there ain't nothing more to write about. And I am rotten glad of it because if I'd known what a trouble it was to make a book, I wouldn't have tackled it and ain't going to no more. But I reckon I got to light out for the territory ahead of the rest because ain't Sally said she's going to adopt me and civilize me and I can't stand it. I've been there before.