Calvin Boyle

I was heading down to my aunt's house when I ran into no other than Huck Finn. He was coming along from my aunt's house.

"Stay away from me Huck I haven't done anything wrong to you! Why did you choose me to haunt when there are so many other people you could have haunted!"

"I ain't never been dead Tom. I ain't haunting you. I'm just coming to warn you that I am pretending to be you."

"You are dead. We had a funeral and everything. The widow cried her eyes out the whole time. I think she really did care for you. They said that run away nigger killed you. There was blood and a trail to the river. Pap hadn't come around since no one knows where he went."

"I ain't dead, I set the whole thing up. I killed a hog and used his blood to make the trail. I was going down the river and found the run away nigger. We got together and started down the river. We came along borrowing what we had to so we could eat. We were headed to Cairo, but we got caught up in the fog and went right by it. After that we ran into to old fat frauds, but we couldn't tell on them because they would turn Jim in. They just came along with us making us stop in towns so they could do what ever it was they do to get money then we would go on. Then they got into this town and found a family whose father had died and pretended they were the lost uncles to take their money. While I was in town they went behind my back and sold Jim out here to your aunt. When I showed up, and they thought I was you so I just went along with it. Then I came along to find you so you don't bust the whole thing up. I have to get Jim out, I have to help him get free. Please don't turn me in, please."

"I'm not going to turn you in. I want to help. I'll just pretend to be Sid. We'll have a huge adventure."

So me and Huck headed in to my aunts house. When we got there she came running out and gave me a huge hug.

"I haven't seen you in forever Sid. How has it been?"

"It's been pretty tough. We have had some bad weather and the river over flowed and washed our best wagon and mule down the river. I had to go to the neighbor's house and work in their tobacco fields for two strait months. Finally we got the money to by a new mule and wagon, but that's about it. How's it been going for you?"

"It's been going really good for us. Our spare horse got eaten by the wolves, but we didn't need it to bad."

By then it had gotten pretty late so me and Huck went up to bed. When we got there we made a plan that we would find out where Jim was the next day. Then we would decide on how we would free him.

The next day we got up to eat breakfast. When we got down there everyone was already up and doing their daily chores. We ate then went outside to find something to do. When we got out there I notice that the door was chained on the shack beside the barn. So we went over to check it out. There was a window on the side of the shack and I got on Huck's shoulders to see in. Jim was sitting in a chair with his wrists chained together and a chain on his leg that was hooked to the old plow. When we saw a slave coming around the corner we ran off so she wouldn't see us.

Later that night we had to go to bed and when all of the lights were off in the house and we heard them snoring, we snuck out the window and down the willow tree. We hurried over to the shack they were keeping Jim in and broke the chain on the door. Jim was in a deep sleep, we had to shake him to death to wake him up. When he woke up he started swinging his fists around like a crazy man.

"Jim it's me Huck and Tom. We came to break you out of here. Just sit still while Tom breaks your chains off."

When I broke the chains off, we hurried out of there and headed for the river. While we were running to the river we ran into the dogs. They started barking and chasing us. One of them bit Huck on the leg but we made it to the river right then and jumped in so they didn't chase us anymore. We came back on land about 100 yards down the river and found 3 canoes so we got in them and headed down the river.

"Huck, are you alright? It looked like that little one bit you pretty good."

"I'm fine. He did get me good. I am bleeding but I think I will be ok."

We were going down the river all night without any sleep worrying about if my aunt would wake up and notice we were gone and try and find us. We just kept going down the river till morning, and we found a little town to stop in. We hid the canoes and Jim in a little patch of cypress trees while we went into town to find food and something to cover Huck's leg in. We snuck up on a farm and borrowed two of their chickens and took them back to Jim then went back into town. We found some old rags to cover his leg with and headed back to the canoes where we found a flier that said "Wanted runaway nigger" and it had a picture of Jim. We hurried back to the canoes and ate the chickens. Then all three of us fell asleep. When I woke back up it was dark and time to get back on the river to head down to Winchestertonfillville where slaves are free. So I woke both Huck and Jim up, we got on our canoes, and took off. We hadn't gone a mile when Jim's canoe smashed into a tree and he fell out. Huck hurried and grabbed Jim, and I took off down to catch his canoe. I caught up to it about a mile down the river then I got on the bank and waited for Huck and Jim to catch up. They caught up about 15 minutes later. Jim's canoe had a hole in it, but we fixed it in about 2 minutes with a piece of wood and some mud packed in under it.

"Huck, we have to hurry up, I hear voices coming down the river behind us and they are talking about a runaway nigger. I think they are coming for Jim."

"I hear them too, Tom. We need to go back in the woods a little ways and hide for awhile so maybe they will pass us."

So we went back in the woods and hid beside a couple cedar trees. We just sat there listening to them talk then everything went silent. We waited about two minutes and then we heard the dogs start barking. The barks were getting closer to us so we had to make a run for it. We all ran as fast as we could into the woods, but the dogs were catching us. We ran for a little ways when we found an old house, so we hurried in. We got inside and found one rifle with two bullets in it and none around. I walked out the front door just in time to see the dogs running at me from about 200 yards out. I aimed the rifle at the first one when suddenly a huge wild hog ran out of the woods and ran over the first dog. The dog hit the ground and wasn't moving while the second dog started fighting the boar. The men caught up about 5 minutes later and shot the hog. We all stayed hid. The men decided that the dogs were just chasing the boar and went back to the river.

"That was a close one, Huck."

"Ya it was. I thought you were going to shoot the dog."

"I was about to when the hog jumped out. I decided to wait hoping that the men would just think it was the hog the whole time. I guess I was right."

"You were that was a mighty good plan, Tom."

"They are really looking for Jim now. We better hurry up and get to Winchestertonfillville."

"I know we are going to have to really stay hidden most of the time now."

We stayed there the rest of that night. We decided on making a run for Winchestertonfillville the next night hoping we could get the whole way there. We were all pretty tired and slept most of the next day. When we woke up, we made a fire, got some pork and bacon off of the hog that they killed the night before, and ate it. When we got done with that we looked around for something we might need but all we found was an old hatchet. When it got dark we waited about an hour, got in our canoes, and went on down the river. Right then we were run ashore by two men who were looking for Jim.

"Hey boys, what are you doing with that runaway nigger?"

"We found him walking down the river a couple minutes ago so we tied him up and are taking him to our papa."

"How bout you give him to us and we won't make any trouble for you."

"We don't want any trouble sir, but this is our runaway nigger. We are going to get the reward for him."

"Well we need the money so hand him over!"

Right then I kicked him in you know where and Huck kicked the other one in the shin and we started to hittin and beatin on both of them. When we thought they were pretty good and whooped up, we untied there raft, jumped in our canoes, and paddled as fast as we could for about 5 miles. We only slowed down a little bit then and just kept on going when finally we saw a bunch of lights up on the bank. Right then all three of us knew we had made it. We all rammed our canoes up on shore and ran up to the town. The first sign we saw said "Winchestertonfillville where all people are free". Jim gave Huck and me the biggest hug we had ever gotten. We had done it, Jim was a free man and it was all because of us.

"Thank you two for doing this for me I couldn't be happier. I couldn't have ever done this with out yall. I ain't never goin to forget you two."

"We aren't ever going to forget you either, Jim. This has been a great adventure, I just can't believe it is over."

Right then a man came up and started telling Jim he had to fill out a lot of papers to be free and he needed to get started. So we went and got on a steamboat that took us home, where we got a lot of whopins but we didn't mind because it was the greatest adventure we had ever taken.