Study Questions
1. How does Huck feel about school in these chapters?

2. How does Huck know his pap is back in town?

3. Why is Huck in a big hurry to give Judge Thatcher his money?

4. What does Judge Thatcher give Huck in exchange for the six thousand dollars?

5. Huck consults Jim about his father. What does he want to know?

6. How does Pap feel about Huck’s ability to read and write?

7. Who goes to court to gain custody of Huck?

8. Who takes Pap into their house in an attempt to reform him?

9. Does Pap turn over a new leaf as he says he will? Explain your answer.

10. What is Twain’s commentary on superstition in Chapter 4?

Answers
1. At first he hated school, but as time went on it became easier and he actually began to like it.

2. He sees his footprints in the snow. Pap has a unique cross in his left bootheel to ward off the devil.

3. He feels that if he gets rid of his six thousand dollars, Pap will leave him alone.

4. He gives him one dollar. In this way Huck has sold it rather than given it away.

5. Jim relies on his hairball to work magic. Huck wants to know about his father, but the hairball wavers back and forth giving him opposing answers.

6. Pap is jealous of his son. He does not want his son to be better than he is, nor to put on “airs.”

7. Judge Thatcher and the Widow Douglas want the court to take Huck away from his father. They want to save Huck from his father’s abuse.

8. The new judge and his wife give him their spare room, food to eat, and new clothes to wear.

9. No. He sneaks out in the middle of the night, exchanges his coat for whiskey, gets drunk, and breaks his arm.

10. Twain is subtly satirizing superstition in this chapter, particularly in the hairball incident. It is obvious neither the hairball’s spirit nor Jim are sure of anything since one answer is consistently juxtaposed with the opposite answer following it.