Summary Chapter 17

Huck tells the man who shouts out an inquiry that he fell overboard from the steamboat. The man introduces himself to Huck as George Jackson.

The man orders him to slowly enter the cabin. There are guns pointing at him. They bolt the door behind him. They examine Huck’s features and decide he isn’t part of the Shepherdson family. They pat him down in search of weapons.

They have Buck, a boy Huck’s age, give him some of his clothes. They serve Huck dinner. He tells them a yarn about how he got there. He forgets the name he gave them, but he tricks Buck into revealing it by daring him to spell it.

The family invites Huck to stay.

Huck admires the pictures and poetry from a dead girl who had been obsessed with death. She wrote poems for everyone that died. It was joked that she got there before the mortician did.

Huck likes the new home and family.