Summary Chapter 10

Jim doesn’t want to discuss the dead man, who Huck is curious about. He says it will bring bad luck, and it may cause the dead man to haunt them. Huck wishes he knew why the man had been shot. They find $8.00 sewn up in a coat they had taken from the house. Huck claims this is the best “bad luck” he has had. Jim had said prior to this that Huck would have bad luck from handling a snake skin, and all that happened is that he found a coat with money in it. Jim warns that bad luck will come.

On Friday, Huck kills a rattlesnake and throws it near Jim’s bed as a joke. He forgets about it. When Jim lays down, the snake’s mate bites him. Huck is upset that he forgot that you have to get rid of a rattlesnake’s body, for its mate will come looking for it. Jim eats the snake’s body and sucks on a jug to cure himself. He is laid up for for days but does recover. Huck decides that Jim was right about the bad luck in handling snake skin. Jim worries they haven’t seen the end of bad luck yet.

The river goes down. They catch a huge fish. The fish was too big to handle, but he drowned while struggling with the line. The fish had a lot of odd objects in his stomach, like a brass button.

Huck wants to go to the village. Jim tells him to go at night. He also advises Huck to dress like a girl.

Huck pulls up to an occupied shanty. He sees a woman inside. He doesn’t know her. He is glad because he can find out news without risking her knowing who he is.