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The Chinese–Kung Fu— Introductions—Oriental Magic—Robin Hood

Huck and I didn't have nowheres to go now, since we were too afeard to go back to the Parkerson's. We expected they hated us – well, at least me- now. We went back into the desert thinking that that must where the goal was, since we'd seen Miles there with equipment an all. I was shaking with fear that we'd see the loony again but Huck tried to console me.

"That ain't no loony you saw." he says to me. "It's a chink. Ain't you know what a chink is?"

I thought about it, and reckoned I didn't know. "No."

"Pap told me all about them. They're poor indolent souls from China come here for a chance at opportunity. Pap use to say they are downright evil, but then again Pap didn't like niggers much neither."

"Chinese!" I cried, "Now that explains why he started shaking his fists all sporadically and kicking up a storm! By god, Huck, I saw him do Kung Fu!" The pride of witnessing the notorious style of fighting I had read all about - even though I hadn't known that I was witnessing it at the time - put me in a mood of determination. I thought back to the chinaman and remembered that he warn't so bad until I had thought he was going crazy on me. We had to go find him! I knew right there that there was no way we could find gold without the chinaman's magic Chinese powers and kung fu. And additionally, he had Miles' equipment. "Huck! We gotta find that chink!"

So we wandered around the desert some until we came to a river and found the rice-eater crying miserably on a rock by the rapids. "My poor baby and wife." The chinaman sobbed, "How may I take you to America if no find gold.  How I find gold if I not have land.  That Yang-gui-zi take my land and I no have claim no more.  My poor wife, how much I disappoint you."

Huck and I watched the chink for a few minutes felling might sorry for him afore we called to him.

"Hey Chinaman!" I hollered. "It's me – your little lofan!"

The chink looked up, saw us, and brightened. "Ah my good boy!" he called. He was mighty glad to see me and called me his hero and all and I was mighty embarrassed. Well, perhaps not that embarrassed. We introduced ourselves to each other.

"I'm Thomas Sawyer, but you can call me Tom."

"Huckleberry Finn. Huck."

"Wei Chee-Hui," the chinaman told us and we looked at him with our mouths open.

"What?" Huck and I chimed.

"You call me Sam," he amended.

So Sam, Huck, and I made plans to pan for gold together which Sam learned us was the easier way to find gold. Huck and I had been thinking we'd mine in the caves. Now, there was a problem since Sam had had a claim on a site that he had a good intuition about but the Parkerson's brother Miles had stolen it from him.

Everyman knows that a Chinaman's oriental magic beats even a nigger's so we knew we had to get that claim of land Miles stole. While we were plotting Sam got to talking about his family back in China whom he wanted to bring over to America soon as he got enough money to send for them. He started telling us all about his son about our age. The young feller who was really into this game called Mah Jong. Sam tried to learn us the game with his little blocks with mysterious designs painted on them but Huck refused to touch the game pieces saying they had some curse written upon them. Then Sam told us about his pretty little wife whom he missed like crazy and loved so much and I felt real sorry because I knew just how he felt cause I was missing Becky Thatcher like crazy some days. But I knowed that when I got back home with a sack full of more gole, Becky and I will be happy for the rest of our lives.

Sam doesn't have that self-confidence to keep him going on so Huck and I know we just gotta help him.  Huck reckoned that we should find a sheriff, as his pap had told him they was bad fellows, so it probably meant they was half-decent, but I said the best way to settle this was to steal it back and be like Robin Hood.  I told him he could be Little John, as I was just set on bein' Robin, as the stealing was my idea, as the Parkersons was just as dishonest as them old rich people in England Robin stole from.  Huck agreed but said we needed ourselves a good plan. So we'se just set ourselves down together to think it through.