Summary: Chapter 20
The duke and the dauphin ask whether Jim is a runaway
slave. Huck makes up a story about how he was orphaned and tells
them that he and Jim have been forced to travel at night since so
many people stopped his boat to ask whether Jim was a runaway. That night,
the duke and the dauphin take Huck’s and Jim’s beds while Huck and
Jim stand watch against a storm.
The next morning, the duke gets the dauphin to agree to
put on a performance of Shakespeare in the next town they pass.
They reach the town and find that everyone in the town has left
for a religious revival meeting in the woods, a lively affair with
several thousand people singing and shouting. The dauphin gets up
and tells the crowd that he is a former pirate, now reformed by
the revival meeting, who will return to the Indian Ocean as a missionary.
The crowd joyfully takes up a collection, netting the dauphin more
than eighty dollars and many kisses from pretty young women.
Meanwhile, the duke takes over the deserted print office
in town and earns nearly ten dollars selling print jobs, subscriptions,
and advertisements in the local newspaper. The duke also prints
up a “handbill,” or leaflet, offering a reward for Jim’s capture,
which will allow them to travel freely by day and tell anyone who
inquires that Jim is their captive. Meanwhile, Jim has been innocently
trying to get the dauphin to speak French, but the supposed heir
to the French throne claims that he has forgotten the language.
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Chapter 20 →
Summary: Chapter 21
Waking up after a night of drinking, the duke
and dauphin practice the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet and
the swordfight from Richard III on the raft. The
duke also works on his recitation of the “To be, or not to be” soliloquy
from Hamlet, which he doesn’t know well at all, throwing in lines
from other parts of Hamlet and even some lines from Macbeth.
To Huck, however, the duke seems to possess a great talent.
Next, the group visits a one-horse town in Arkansas
where lazy young men loiter in the streets, arguing over chewing
tobacco. Huck gives a detailed, absurd description of the town.
The duke posts handbills for the theatrical performance, and Huck
witnesses the shooting of a rowdy drunk by a man, Sherburn, whom
the drunk has insulted. The shooting takes place in front of the
victim’s daughter. A crowd gathers around the dying man and then
goes off to lynch Sherburn.
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Chapter 21 →
Summary: Chapter 22
The lynch mob charges through the streets, proceeds
to Sherburn’s house, and knocks down the front fence. The crowd
quickly backs away, however, as Sherburn greets them from the roof
of his front porch, rifle in hand. After a chilling silence, Sherburn
delivers a haughty speech on human nature in which he attacks the
cowardice and mob mentality of the average person. Sherburn tells
the crowd that no one will lynch him in the daytime. The mob, chastened,
disperses.
