Summary: Chapter 17
A man calls off the dogs, saving Huck, who introduces
himself as “George Jackson.” The man invites “George” into his house,
where the hosts express an odd suspicion that Huck is a member of
a family called the Shepherdsons. Eventually, Huck’s hosts decide
that he is not a Shepherdson. The lady of the house tells Buck,
a boy about Huck’s age, to get Huck some dry clothes. Buck says
he would have killed a Shepherdson had there been any Shepherdsons
present. Buck tells Huck a riddle, but Huck does not understand
the concept of riddles. Buck says Huck must stay with him and they
will have great fun. Huck, meanwhile, invents an elaborate story
to explain how he was orphaned.
Buck’s family, the Grangerfords, offer to let Huck stay
with them for as long as he likes. Huck innocently admires the house
and its humorously tacky finery, including the work of a deceased
daughter, Emmeline, who created unintentionally funny sentimental
artwork and poems about people who died. Settling in with the Grangerfords
and enjoying their kindness, Huck thinks that “nothing couldn’t
be better” than life at the comfortable house.
Read a translation of
Chapter 17 →
Summary: Chapter 18
Other places do seem so cramped up and
smothery, but a raft don’t. You feel mighty free and easy and comfortable
on a raft.
See Important Quotations Explained
Huck admires Colonel Grangerford, the master of the house,
and his supposed gentility. A warmhearted man, the colonel owns
a very large estate with over a hundred slaves. Everyone in the
household treats the colonel with great courtesy. The Grangerford
children include Bob, the oldest; then Tom; then Charlotte, age
twenty-five; Sophia, age twenty; and finally Buck. All of them are
beautiful.
One day, Buck tries to shoot a young man named Harney
Shepherdson but misses. Huck asks why Buck wanted to kill Harney,
and Buck explains that the Grangerfords are in a feud with a neighboring
clan of families, the Shepherdsons. No one can remember how or why
the feud started, but in the last year, two people have been killed,
including a fourteen-year-old Grangerford. The two families attend
church together and hold their rifles between their knees as the
minister preaches about brotherly love.
After church one day, Sophia Grangerford has Huck retrieve
a copy of the Bible from the pews. She is delighted to find inside
a note with the words “Half-past two” written on it. Later, Huck’s
slave valet leads Huck deep into the swamp and tells Huck he wants
to show him some water-moccasins. Huck finds Jim there, much to
his surprise. Jim says that he followed Huck to the shore the night
they were wrecked but did not dare call out for fear of being caught. Some
slaves found the raft, but Jim reclaimed it by threatening the slaves
and telling them that it belonged to his white master.
The next day, Huck learns that Sophia Grangerford has
run off with Harney Shepherdson. In the woods, Huck finds Buck and
a nineteen-year-old Grangerford in a gunfight with the Shepherdsons. Both
of the Grangerfords are killed. Deeply disturbed, Huck heads for
Jim and the raft, and the two shove off downstream.
