At breakfast Uncle Silas remembered the letter from the post office and gave it to Aunt Sally. “Why, it’s from St. Petersburg,” she said. “It’s from my sister.”
But before she could open it, she dropped it and ran, because she saw something. So did I. It was Tom Sawyer on a mattress, and the old doctor, and Jim in her dress with his hands tied behind him, and a lot of people. I hid the letter and ran out.
Aunt Sally threw herself on Tom. “Oh, he’s dead, I know he’s dead!” Tom turned his head a little and said something that made no sense. “He’s alive, thank God! That’s enough!” And she flew to the house to get his bed ready.
I followed the men to see what they would do with Jim. Some of them wanted to hang him, as a lesson to the other slaves. But others said no, he wasn’t their slave, and his owner would make them pay for him. That cooled them down. The people who are most eager to hang a slave are always the ones who are least eager to pay for him.
They cursed Jim and hit him a few times, but Jim never said a word and never showed that he knew me. They chained his hands and legs in the hut and said he would get only bread and water until his owner came, or until he was sold.
Then the old doctor came and looked.
“Don’t be harder on him than you have to,” he said. “I couldn’t cut the bullet out without help, and the boy was out of his head. The minute I said I needed help, this slave crawled out of the bushes and helped me, and he did it very well. Of course I knew he must be a runaway. I never saw a better or more faithful nurse, and he was risking his freedom to do it. I tell you, gentlemen, a slave like that is worth a thousand dollars, and kind treatment too. At dawn some men came by in a boat, and he was asleep by the boy’s bed, so they tied him before he knew what was happening. He never gave us any trouble.”
The men softened a little and promised not to curse him any more. I was very thankful to the old doctor. I hoped they would take off some of the heavy chains, but they didn’t think of it.
The next morning I was sitting by Tom’s bed, and Aunt Sally was there too, when Tom opened his eyes.
“Hello! Why, I’m at home! Where’s the raft?”
“It’s all right,” I said.
“And Jim?”
“The same,” I said, but not very bravely. He didn’t notice.
“Good! Did you tell Aunty how Tom and I set the runaway slave free? It was weeks of work, Aunty! We stole the candles and the sheet and the spoons and the grindstone, and we sent the rope ladder in a pie, and we wrote the letters. And we did it all ourselves. Wasn’t it great?”
“Well, I never heard anything like it! So it was you, you little rascals, who scared us half to death! You just get well, and then I’ll beat both of you! And if I catch you meddling with him again…”
“Meddling with who?” said Tom, and his smile was gone.
“Why, the runaway slave, of course. They caught him. He’s back in that hut, on bread and water and loaded with chains, until his owner comes or he’s sold!”
Tom sat straight up in bed with his eyes burning. “They have no right to shut him up! Go and turn him loose! He isn’t a slave. He’s as free as anybody on this earth! Old Miss Watson died two months ago. She was ashamed that she ever wanted to sell him down the river, and she said so, and she set him free in her will.”
“Then why did you want to set him free, if he was already free?”
“Well, that is a question! I wanted the adventure of it, of course. Oh, goodness, Aunt Polly!”
There she stood, just inside the door, looking as sweet as an angel. Aunt Sally ran to her and hugged her, and I found a good place for myself under the bed.
“That isn’t Tom, it’s Sid,” said Aunt Sally. “Where is Tom? He was here a minute ago.”
“You mean, where is Huck Finn! I raised Tom, and I know him when I see him. Come out from under that bed, Huck Finn.”
So I came out, but I didn’t feel very brave. Aunt Polly told them who I was, and I explained that when Aunt Sally took me for Tom Sawyer, I had to go along with it.
Aunt Polly said Tom was right about Miss Watson’s will. So Tom Sawyer had gone to all that trouble to set a free man free! Now I understood how a boy like Tom, from a good family, could help me steal a slave.