Dear Aunt Polly
and Aunt Sally,
We ain't about civilizing.
We ain't about reforming.
If we havent' learned you by now,
We ain't never will.
We live for adventuring.
We dream about mischiefing.
So Huck an' I'll see you,
Next time there's an Injun in town,
Or captive needing to be freed,
Or treasure needing to be found.
signed (with love, Aunt Polly),
Tom Sawyer
the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main
and Huck Finn
the Red handed
1
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I ain't about letting Huck get all the glory from our Adventures. If you've read The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the book Mr. Twain wrote about mostly me – that's right, my book came afore Huck's- or Huck's book Adventures of Huck Finn you know all about us. But you don't know what happened after we visited Aunt Sally unless you read this book.
What happened in those books were that Huck and I found Injun Joe's treasure and became starking rich. The Widow Douglass adopted Huck and I stayed with my dear Aunt Polly but something happened and Huck's pap came to take him away. He had to pretend he was murdered which made me mighty sad. But it ain't so bad cause he really went and had a grand adventure and I got to meet up with him at Aunt Sally's. He was pretending to be me so I had to be bratty little Sid and we got to rescuing the nigger Miss Watson had just freed in her will. Huck didn't know Jim was already freed, course, and it wouldn't have been no fun if he had so I kept mum and we had a jolly old time planning a proper escape just like in the books with Baron Trenck, and Casanova and Benvenuto Chelleeny and Henry IV. I got mighty lucky when Uncle Silas and the rest of the town came chasing after Huck, Jim and me cause they shot a handsome bullet right in the calf of my leg. Anyways, Huck and me got found out when Aunt Polly showed up knowing something was fishy when Aunt Sally wrote to her that Sid and I had come to visit when it was only supposed to be me. They weren't all that bad, fact Aunt Sally wanted to adopt Huck. Huck said he couldn't take no civilizing and more but I convinced him to say there few days before we ran away from home to go on howling adventures amongst the Injuns.
We got a good piece o'money from Judge Thatcher and jumped on a steamboat headin' north. We were gone for a weeks and I think the town pretty much believed we had drowned in the river again. It was shameful that we couldn't see if they were planning our funeral so we could attend it again. But we were busy with our adventures. I couldn't tell Huck in case he thought me a coward but I never been so scared in my life than the times we went on that River. In the daylight, in the night – ev'ry time I looked over the edge of the boat into the murky brown mud mixed water I got a sinking feeling. I can't understand how Huck lasted going all the ways to Illinois. And with Jim too – who was practically a convict up until Miss Watson set him freed.
We made it up river, towards Indian Territory. We was anticipating seeing wild Injuns, but we had ourselves a heap o'fright afore we got there. Whiles we was on the steam boat, we talked a spell to a family of three brothers, the Parkersons, who were traveling out west. They said they'd heard ev'ry man out west struck gold in California an' that they was going to try their luck. They had another brother already out there, named Miles the third eldest of the four brothers. I wondered about adventures out there, whether it would compare to adventures wid Injuns. Then they said there was a heap o'Injuns out west, and parcels of adventures to be had. I was just ichin to go. Huck said that he reckoned it weren't no good goin' west as we was already rich and what'd we need more gold for? I told him that warn't the point! It was about the adventures we'd have but Huck just worried about death and murder and disease. I finally convinced him of the romance of the adventure, tellin' him Aunt Sally couldn't never civilise him, as we'd be too dog gone far aways from her to ever lay a hand on us. So, he agreed and we set off with them Parkersons, to jump off at St. Louis to hitch the Missouri river steam boat to Independence, being the beginnin' of the California Trail.
