Huck Finn 7: pg. 130-157

1.) "Then the preacher begun to preach; and begun in earnest, too"(143).
earnest- with serious intention, purpose, or effort

2.) "mud as black as tar, and nigh about a foot deep in some places"(152).
nigh- nearly; almost

"If I never learnt nothing else out of pap, I learnt that the best way to get along with his kind of people is to let them have their own way"(137).

This is probably the best advice of Pap's that Huck has ever followed. It is not very hard to tell that Huck is not sharing the raft with a real duke and a real king. Huck also recognizes this: "It didn't take me long to make up my mind that these liars warn't no kings nor dukes, at all, but just low-down humbugs and frauds"(137). Huck also recognizes that "it would a been a miserable business to have any unfriendliness on the raft"(137). Huck and Jim are stuck on a tiny raft with two strangers blatantly lying by saying they were kings and dukes. Huck did a very calm and rational thing in this situation by going along with Mr. Garrick and Mr. Kean's lie. By doing this, Huck avoids possible confrontation with strangers, which was a very smart move because bringing up their lie could have been dangerous. Pap's advice of letting people be turned out to be very advantageous for Huck to follow.

"'dat's all right, den. I doan' mine one er two kings, but dat's enough. Dis one's powerful drunk, en de duke ain' much better.' I found Jim had been trying to get him to talk French, so he could hear what it was like; but he said he had been in this country so long, and had so much trouble, he'd forgot it"(146).

It is hard to tell if Jim really believes that the duke and king are actually being honest. Huck found out very quickly that they were "just low-down humbugs and frauds"(137). However, Jim did cater to the "king" and "duke" often and as Huck said, Jim even asked the king of France how to speak French. Jim already had an opinion about men speaking different languages; since a Frenchman is a man, he should talk like all other men. This may make Jim seem ignorant or dumb. However, he is nothing of the sort. Jim followed up on what French actually sounds like. This shows his intelligence. Jim is simply uneducated. The fact that he remembers his side of the argument and wants proof that French is actually different than English shows that he is not gullible and easily convinced, he stands behind well formulated opinions.