Thanks for the very thoughtful and interesting responses to my question regarding the route Jim takes to try for freedom. There's one other possibility that strikes me that hasn't been mentioned. Is it possible that Jim simply doesn't know that Illinois is a free State? I don't imagine slave owners would advertise how close a chance at getting away really was, and Huck probably wouldn't tell him because of his guilt at helping the runaway. Jim is very intelligent in many ways, but maybe it's a question of the availability of the information, not intelligence. What do you think? Steve