Table of ContentsPrevious PageNext Page
Considering Competitive Colleges? Are You Prepared? Get a diagnostic from former top College Admissions Officers
Shmoop Partner
Advertisement

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapter Twenty-Four Summary

Chapter Twenty-Four

  • The cons dress up Jim as an Arab so he won’t be discovered as a runaway slave.
  • Still, in case the outfit isn’t enough (they used some of the props from their King Lear supplies), they put a sign on him that says "Sick Arab–but harmless when not out of his head."
  • The two con men are eager to pull off another con; they want to try The Royal Nonesuch gig again, but they’re afraid news of the scam might have spread along the river by now.
  • The king decides he’ll just drop into the next village and "trust in Providence" to lead him the right way.
  • He and Huck dress themselves up nicely in some new clothes and decide to arrive in town by steamboat (for appearance’s sake).
  • They soon run into a young man from the country who takes them towards the boat and spills all the town gossip on the way. Turns out, a wealthy man named Peter Wilks has just died. While he was sick, he had sent for his brothers William (a deaf mute) and Harvey (a preacher in England). But they haven’t shown up yet, which means they missed the chance to say good-bye to their brother before he passed.
  • Still in town, however, are Peter’s three nieces – Mary Jane (19), Susan (15), and Joanna (14, has a harelip).
  • The king is immensely interested (mostly because dead people equals money, in the inheritance sense) and pumps this guy for all the information he’s got.
  • When they get to the steamboat, the king bids good-bye to the young man but doesn’t get on the boat with Huck as planned.
  • Instead, he sends Huck to fetch the duke, and the two conmen hatch a plot.
  • So of course the duke and king decide to play the part of the dead man’s brothers. They travel to town and make a big stink over the fact that Peter died before they arrived. (The king is playing the part of the preacher, with a British accent and all, and the duke plays William, the deaf mute.)
  • Watching the two men blubber on and lament their dear, beloved dead "brother," Huck comments that, "it was enough to make a body ashamed of the human race." Well said, Huck.