The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Webster's Thesaurus Edition)

428 Pages·2006·3.47 MB·English

by  Mark Twain

THE ADVENTURES OF
HUCKLEBERRY FINN

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Mark Twain

PSAT is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit Scholarship
Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT is a registered trademark of the College
Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE, AP and Advanced Placement are registered
trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT is a
registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated with this book
nor endorses this book, LSATis a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council which neither
sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

Mark Twain

PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the
College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are
registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book,
GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated
with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council
which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.
ICON CLASSICS

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www.icongrouponline.com

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Webster’s Thesaurus Edition for PSAT®, SAT®, GRE®, LSAT®,
GMAT®, and AP® English Test Preparation

This edition published by ICON Classics in 2005
Printed in the United States of America.

Copyright ©2005 by ICON Group International, Inc.
Edited by Philip M. Parker, Ph.D. (INSEAD); Copyright ©2005, all rights reserved.

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PSAT® is a registered trademark of the College Entrance Examination Board and the
National Merit Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book;
SAT® is a registered trademark of the College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses
this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are registered trademarks of the
Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book, GMAT® is a
registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither
affiliated with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law
School Admissions Council which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights
reserved.

ISBN 0-497-25299-6
iii

Contents

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR..........................................................................................1

CHAPTER I I DISCOVER MOSES AND THE BULRUSHES.................................................3

CHAPTER II OUR GANG’S DARK OATH............................................................................7

CHAPTER III WE AMBUSCADE THE A-RABS..................................................................15

CHAPTER IV THE HAIR-BALL ORACLE..........................................................................21

CHAPTER V PAP STARTS IN ON A NEW LIFE.................................................................25

CHAPTER VI PAP STRUGGLES WITH THE DEATH ANGEL.............................................31

CHAPTER VII I FOOL PAP AND GET AWAY.....................................................................39

CHAPTER VIII I SPARE MISS WATSON’S JIM.................................................................47

CHAPTER IX THE HOUSE OF DEATH FLOATS BY.........................................................59

CHAPTER X WHAT COMES OF HANDLIN’ SNAKESKIN...................................................65

CHAPTER XI THEY’RE AFTER US!.................................................................................69

CHAPTER XII ”BETTER LET BLAME WELL ALONE”.......................................................77

CHAPTER XIII HONEST LOOT FROM THE WALTER SCOTT............................................85

CHAPTER XIV WAS SOLOMON WISE?...........................................................................91

CHAPTER XV FOOLING POOR OLD JIM.........................................................................97

CHAPTER XVI THE RATTLESNAKE SKIN DOES ITS WORK..........................................105

CHAPTER XVII THE GRANGERFORDS TAKE ME IN.....................................................115

CHAPTER XVIII WHY HARNEY RODE AWAY FOR HIS HAT...........................................125

CHAPTER XIX THE DUKE AND THE DAUPHIN COME ABOARD...................................139

CHAPTER XX WHAT ROYALTY DID TO PARKVILLE......................................................149

CHAPTER XXI AN ARKSANSAW DIFFICULTY...............................................................159

CHAPTER XXII WHY THE LYNCHING BEE FAILED.......................................................169

CHAPTER XXIII THE ORNERINESS OF KINGS.............................................................175

CHAPTER XXIV THE KING TURNS PARSON.................................................................181

CHAPTER XXV ALL FULL OF TEARS AND FLAPDOODLE.............................................189

CHAPTER XXVI I STEAL THE KING’S PLUNDER...........................................................197

CHAPTER XXVII DEAD PETER HAS HIS GOLD............................................................207

CHAPTER XXVIII OVERREACHING DON’T PAY............................................................215

CHAPTER XXIX I LIGHT OUT IN THE STORM..............................................................225

CHAPTER XXX THE GOLD SAVES THE THIEVES........................................................237

CHAPTER XXXI YOU CAN’T PRAY A LIE.......................................................................241
iv

CHAPTER XXXII I HAVE A NEW NAME........................................................................251

CHAPTER XXXIII THE PITIFUL ENDING OF ROYALTY..................................................259

CHAPTER XXXIV WE CHEER UP JIM...........................................................................267

CHAPTER XXXV DARK, DEEP-LAID PLANS..................................................................275

CHAPTER XXXVI TRYING TO HELP JIM.......................................................................283

CHAPTER XXXVII JIM GETS HIS WITCH PIE...............................................................289

CHAPTER XXXVIII ”HERE A CAPTIVE HEART BUSTED”...............................................297

CHAPTER XXXIX TOM WRITES NONNAMOUS LETTERS..............................................305

CHAPTER XL A MIXED-UP AND SPLENDID RESCUE...................................................311

CHAPTER XLI ”MUST ‘A’ BEEN SPERITS”.....................................................................319

CHAPTER XLII WHY THEY DIDN’T HANG JIM..............................................................327

CHAPTER XLIII NOTHING MORE TO WRITE.................................................................337

GLOSSARY...................................................................................................................341
Mark Twain 1

PREFACE FROM THE EDITOR

Designed for school districts, educators, and students seeking to maximize performance on
standardized tests, Webster’s paperbacks take advantage of the fact that classics are frequently
assigned readings in English courses. By using a running thesaurus at the bottom of each page, this
edition of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was edited for students who are
actively building their vocabularies in anticipation of taking PSAT®, SAT®, AP® (Advanced
Placement®), GRE®, LSAT®, GMAT® or similar examinations.1

Webster’s edition of this classic is organized to expose the reader to a maximum number of
synonyms and antonyms for difficult and often ambiguous English words that are encountered in
other works of literature, conversation, or academic examinations. Extremely rare or idiosyncratic
words and expressions are given lower priority in the notes compared to words which are “difficult,
and often encountered” in examinations. Rather than supply a single synonym, many are provided
for a variety of meanings, allowing readers to better grasp the ambiguity of the English language,
and avoid using the notes as a pure crutch. Having the reader decipher a word’s meaning within
context serves to improve vocabulary retention and understanding. Each page covers words not
already highlighted on previous pages. If a difficult word is not noted on a page, chances are that it
has been highlighted on a previous page. A more complete thesaurus is supplied at the end of the
book; Synonyms and antonyms are extracted from Webster’s Online Dictionary.

Definitions of remaining terms as well as translations can be found at www.websters-online-
dictionary.org. Please send suggestions to [email protected]

The Editor
Webster’s Online Dictionary
www.websters-online-dictionary.org
1 P S A T ® i s a r e g i s t e r e d t r a d e m a r k o f t h e College Entrance Examination Board and the National Merit
Scholarship Corporation neither of which sponsors or endorses this book; SAT® is a registered trademark of the
College Board which neither sponsors nor endorses this book; GRE®, AP® and Advanced Placement® are
registered trademarks of the Educational Testing Service which neither sponsors nor endorses this book,
GMAT® is a registered trademark of the Graduate Management Admissions Council which is neither affiliated
with this book nor endorses this book, LSAT® is a registered trademark of the Law School Admissions Council
which neither sponsors nor endorses this product. All rights reserved.

Mark Twain 3

CHAPTER I

I DISCOVER MOSES AND THE BULRUSHES

YOU don't know about me without you have read a book by the name of The
Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book was made by
Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he
stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I never seen anybody
but lied one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe
Mary. Aunt Polly--Tom's Aunt Polly, she is--and Mary, and the Widow Douglas
is all told about in that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers,
as I said before.%
Now the way that the book winds up is this: Tom and me found the money
that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich. We got six thousand dollars
apiece--all gold. It was an awful sight of money when it was piled up. Well,
Judge Thatcher he took it and put it out at interest, and it fetched us a dollar a
day apiece all the year round-- more than a body could tell what to do with. The
Widow Douglas she took me for her son, and allowed she would sivilize me; but
it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and
decent the widow was in all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer I
lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and
satisfied. But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a

Thesaurus
apiece: (adj, adv) each; (adj) one by one; black, dim, dull. ANTONYMS: (adj) rags: (adj) refuse, rubble, scourings,
(pron) all, both, each one; (adv) bright, happy, lively, uplifting, sweepings, trash, waste; (n) clothing,
individually, singly, for each, for sunny, pleasant, light, cheery, strong, tatter, orts, odds and ends, dress.
each one, from each one, to each one. soulful, wonderful. stretched: (adj) extended, stiff, tight,
ANTONYM: (adv) together. dollars: (n) bread. tense, stretched out, strained,
cave: (n) lair, hole, grotto, hollow, don't: (adv) not; (n) taboo, prohibition. expanded, outstretched, elongated,
cove, den, cell, grot, nest; (v) hunted: (adj) coursed, afraid, wanted, outspread, prolonged. ANTONYMS:
undermine, calve. ANTONYMS: (n) required, sought, sought after; (n) (adj) loose, short.
hump; (v) withstand. victim. widow: (n) woman, relict, widower,
dismal: (adj) cheerless, dejected, lied: (n) song, hymn. adult female, widow woman, war
dreary, gloomy, desolate, piled: (adj) heaped, dense, aggregate, widow, nobbled line; (adj) widowed,
disconsolate, depressing, melancholy, collective, concentrated, cumulous. additional; (v) leave behind.
4 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and be
respectable. So I went back.%
The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called
me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by it. She put me in
them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel
all cramped up. Well, then, the old thing commenced again. The widow rung a
bell for supper, and you had to come to time. When you got to the table you
couldn't go right to eating, but you had to wait for the widow to tuck down her
head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn't really anything
the matter with them,--that is, nothing only everything was cooked by itself. In a
barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the juice kind of
swaps around, and the things go better.
After supper she got out her book and learned me about Moses and the
Bulrushers, and I was in a sweat to find out all about him; but by and by she let it
out that Moses had been dead a considerable long time; so then I didn't care no
more about him, because I don't take no stock in dead people.
Pretty soon I wanted to smoke, and asked the widow to let me. But she
wouldn't. She said it was a mean practice and wasn't clean, and I must try to not
do it any more. That is just the way with some people. They get down on a
thing when they don't know nothing about it. Here she was a-bothering about
Moses, which was no kin to her, and no use to anybody, being gone, you see, yet
finding a power of fault with me for doing a thing that had some good in it. And
she took snuff, too; of course that was all right, because she done it herself.
Her sister, Miss Watson, a tolerable slim old maid, with goggles on, had just
come to live with her, and took a set at me now with a spelling- book. She
worked me middling hard for about an hour, and then the widow made her ease
up. I couldn't stood it much longer. Then for an hour it was deadly dull, and I
was fidgety. Miss Watson would say, "Don't put your feet up there,
Huckleberry;" and "Don't scrunch up like that, Huckleberry--set up straight;" and
pretty soon she would say, "Don't gap and stretch like that, Huckleberry--why
don't you try to behave?" Then she told me all about the bad place, and I said I

Thesaurus
cramped: (adj) cramp, limited, close, safety glasses, goggle, swimming unreasonably.
constrained, contracted, crowded, goggles, face mask, eyeglass. scrunch: (v) crumple, crunch, crinkle,
narrow, poky, restricted, small, tight. grumble: (n, v) mutter, gripe, growl, hunker down, crease, pucker,
ANTONYMS: (adj) roomy, open, moan, rumble, mumble, groan, roar; wrinkle, mash, munch, fold, crouch.
uncrowded, vast, liberated. (v) complain, grouch; (n) complaint. ANTONYMS: (v) smooth, relax.
fidgety: (adj, n) nervous; (adj) unquiet, ANTONYMS: (n, v) praise; (v) snuff: (v) smell, kill, douse, slay, scent,
fretful, fussy, anxious, hasty, jittery, compliment, rejoice. snuffle, bump off, smother, snort;
jumpy, mercurial, restive; (n) middling: (adj) indifferent, average, (adj) tobacco, nicotine.
apprehensive. ANTONYMS: (adj) mediocre, medium, intermediate, victuals: (n) food, fare, viands, victual,
relaxed, calm. common, passable, standard; (adv) edible, provender, grub, sustenance,
goggles: (n) eyeglasses, spectacles, fairly, passably; (adj, adv) clean. support, diet, nutriment.
barnacles, specs, bifocals, monocle, ANTONYMS: (adj) excellent; (adv) worked: (adj) elaborated, beaten.
Mark Twain 5
wished I was there. She got mad then, but I didn't mean no harm. All I wanted
was to go somewheres; all I wanted was a change, I warn't particular. She said it
was wicked to say what I said; said she wouldn't say it for the whole world; she
was going to live so as to go to the good place. Well, I couldn't see no advantage
in going where she was going, so I made up my mind I wouldn't try for it. But I
never said so, because it would only make trouble, and wouldn't do no good.%
Now she had got a start, and she went on and told me all about the good
place. She said all a body would have to do there was to go around all day long
with a harp and sing, forever and ever. So I didn't think much of it. But I never
said so. I asked her if she reckoned Tom Sawyer would go there, and she said
not by a considerable sight. I was glad about that, because I wanted him and me
to be together.
Miss Watson she kept pecking at me, and it got tiresome and lonesome. By
and by they fetched the niggers in and had prayers, and then everybody was off
to bed. I went up to my room with a piece of candle, and put it on the table.
Then I set down in a chair by the window and tried to think of something
cheerful, but it warn't no use. I felt so lonesome I most wished I was dead. The
stars were shining, and the leaves rustled in the woods ever so mournful; and I
heard an owl, away off, who-whooing about somebody that was dead, and a
whippowill and a dog crying about somebody that was going to die; and the
wind was trying to whisper something to me, and I couldn't make out what it
was, and so it made the cold shivers run over me. Then away out in the woods I
heard that kind of a sound that a ghost makes when it wants to tell about
something that's on its mind and can't make itself understood, and so can't rest
easy in its grave, and has to go about that way every night grieving. I got so
down-hearted and scared I did wish I had some company. Pretty soon a spider
went crawling up my shoulder, and I flipped it off and it lit in the candle; and
before I could budge it was all shriveled up. I didn't need anybody to tell me
that that was an awful bad sign and would fetch me some bad luck, so I was
scared and most shook the clothes off of me. I got up and turned around in my
tracks three times and crossed my breast every time; and then I tied up a little

Thesaurus
budge: (adj, v) move, go; (v) stir, iterate, restate, reiterate, retell. shriveled: (adj) wizened, shrivelled,
agitate, change, sway, dislodge, lonesome: (adj) lone, desolate, forlorn, shrunken, parched, sere, dried, thin,
bump, rouse, push; (adj) flit. dreary, dismal, solitary, secluded, withered, attenuated, sear, tabid.
ANTONYMS: (v) remain, stay. gloomy, unfrequented; (adj, n) ANTONYM: (adj) smooth.
flipped: (adj) manic, rabid, delirious, isolated, alone. ANTONYM: (n) foe. tiresome: (adj) tedious, dull, laborious,
crazy, inverse, fierce. mournful: (adj) sad, miserable, irksome, monotonous, annoying,
grieving: (adj) sorrowful, bereft, melancholy, funereal, dolorous, dark, slow, dreary, bothersome; (adj, v)
bereaved, mournful, aggrieved, sad, pensive, gloomy, lugubrious, wearisome, troublesome.
teenful, despondent; (v) grief, lamentable; (adj, n) plaintive. ANTONYMS: (adj) stimulating, fun,
affliction; (n) sorrow. ANTONYMS: (adj) joyful, happy, varied, soothing, pleasant, brisk,
harp: (n) lyre, harmonica, harper, lute, emotionless. exciting, convenient, refreshing.
mouth harp; (v) dwell, ingeminate, shivers: (n) cold, jitters. tracks: (n) network.