The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

6) How do Pap Finn, the Widow Douglas, and Judge Thatcher dispute over the custody of Huck?

The Widow Douglas takes care of Huck and tries to teach him. She and Judge Thatcher go to court “to take [Huck] away from [Pap Finn] and let one of them be [Huck’s] guardian.” Pap Finn argues that because he is Huck’s father, he has the right to Huck’s money, and he thrashes Huck unless Huck gets a few dollars at a time from Judge Thatcher. In a desperate move, Pap Finn captures Huck and takes him across the river to Illinois, where “there warn’t no houses but an old log hut in a place where the timber was so thick you couldn’t find it if you didn’t know where it was.”