Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Chapter Four Summary

Against all expectations, Huck’s been gettin’ sivilized!
What we mean is, he’s been going to school and taking regular showers and the like, which for a boy from the woods is a big deal.
Still, he has to go and sleep in the woods sometimes, as he really does prefer the outdoors.
One morning, Huck spills some salt at breakfast. But before he can throw it over his shoulder (it’s a superstition thing), Miss Watson stops him and tells him not to be foolish.
Huck knows this means there is bad luck to come.
He goes outside and sees tracks in the snow; someone came up to the garden and then stopped before going inside. Examining one of the tracks, Huck sees a cross in the heel made out of nails – a sign to keep off the devil.
After seeing this, Huck hauls it to Judge Thatcher’s as fast as he can, with one eye over his shoulder the whole way. Clearly, he knows something we don’t.
When he gets to the Judge’s, he says he wants to give him all the money (his six-thousand-dollar share of the money found in the cave).
The Judge wants to know why, but Huck skirts the issue on the grounds that he doesn’t want "to tell no lies."
The Judge ponders for a moment and decides that what Huck really wants to do is sell his property over to the Judge; this way the transaction is legal and Huck is safe. (This will all make sense soon, don’t worry).
Huck agrees, signs a document, gets a dollar as pay for all his property, and leaves.
On his way back home, he tells us about Jim and his magic hairball. It’s a fortune-telling magic hairball.
So Huck goes to Jim to have his fortune read by the magic hairball. He says he saw his Pap’s tracks in the snow and now he’s scared.
Jim drops the hairball on the floor, but sadly, this is insufficient to make the thing talk. Clearly, the hairball needs some money.
One counterfeit quarter later, the hairball tells Huck (via Jim’s interpretation, of course), that his Pap doesn’t know what to do. He’s got a good angel on one shoulder and a bad one on the other, and it’s hard to say who he’ll listen to at any given time.
Jim rather profoundly observes that sometimes Huck’s life will be good and sometimes bad; sometimes he’ll be sick, but he’ll always get better.
Huck goes back home to his bedroom where abusive, drunk Pap is sitting, waiting for him to come home.

Chapter Five

Chapter Three