In the morning, the boys went to the village. They bought a rat-trap (a cage used to catch rats) and brought it back. They found a large rat hole and caught fifteen rats in one hour. They hid the trap under Aunt Sally’s bed.
A young boy named Thomas Phelps found the trap. He opened the door to see if the rats would come out. The rats ran all over the room. Aunt Sally came in and saw the rats. She was very scared and stood on top of her bed.
Aunt Sally was very angry at Huckleberry Finn and Tom Sawyer. She hit both boys with a small branch from a tree. The boys spent two hours catching more rats. These new rats were not as good as the first ones.
The boys also collected many spiders, bugs, and frogs. They even tried to take a hornet’s nest (a home for large, stinging bees). But the hornets were very angry and stung the boys. The boys could not sit down comfortably for a long time.
Then the boys caught many snakes and put them in a bag. They put the bag in their bedroom, but they did not tie it well. All the snakes escaped and went into different parts of the house. The snakes stayed in the house for a long time.
There were snakes everywhere. They hung from the ceiling and landed on plates. Sometimes a snake fell down a person's neck. Aunt Sally hated snakes very much. She did not care if they were safe snakes.
Every time a snake fell on Aunt Sally, she screamed loudly. She would stop her work and run away. If she found a snake in her bed, she shouted very loudly. Uncle Silas was also very unhappy because of the snakes.
Even after the snakes were gone, Aunt Sally was still nervous. If someone touched her neck with a feather, she jumped. Tom Sawyer said all women were like that. He said they were born to be afraid of small animals.
The boys got a punishment every time Aunt Sally saw a snake. But they finally put all the animals into Jim’s cabin. The cabin was full of spiders, rats, and snakes. The spiders did not like Jim, and they bit him often.
Jim said there was no room in his bed. The rats and snakes were always moving. When the snakes slept, the rats were awake. Jim said he never wanted to be a prisoner again. He was very tired of the animals.
After three weeks, everything was ready for the escape. Jim wrote in his journal on the shirt. The pens and the stone were finished. The boys sawed the leg of the bed and ate the sawdust. It gave them a terrible stomach-ache.
Uncle Silas did not get an answer about Jim from anyone. He decided to put an advertisement (a notice in a newspaper to tell people something) in the papers. Huckleberry Finn was afraid because someone might recognize Jim. Tom Sawyer said they must send anonymous (without a name) letters.
Tom Sawyer said they must warn the people that something was happening. He said this was the way things happened in his books. Huckleberry Finn did not want to warn anyone. He wanted the escape to be easy and quiet.
Tom Sawyer said the people on the farm were too calm. If the boys did not give a warning, the escape would be boring. Tom Sawyer wanted an exciting escape. He told Huckleberry Finn to dress like a servant girl.
Huckleberry Finn stole a dress from a servant. He put the dress on and went to the house at night. He pushed a letter under the front door. The letter told the family to watch out because trouble was coming.
The next night, Tom Sawyer drew a picture of a skull (the bone of a person’s head). He put it on the front door. The night after that, he drew a coffin (a box for a dead person) on the back door. The family was very frightened.
Aunt Sally was so scared that she jumped at every noise. She thought ghosts were behind her all the time. Tom Sawyer was very happy with this. He said the plan was working perfectly.
The next morning, the boys prepared another letter. They heard that guards would watch the doors all night. Tom Sawyer climbed down the lightning-rod to look around. He found a guard sleeping at the back door.
Tom Sawyer put a letter on the guard’s neck. The letter said a gang of bad men was coming at midnight. It said the men wanted to steal Jim. The letter said the writer was a member of the gang but wanted to be honest now.
The letter told the family to wait by the cabin. It said the writer would make a sound like a sheep when the men arrived. Then the family could catch the bad men. Tom Sawyer signed the letter as an "Unknown Friend."