I have sometimes wondered whether it wouldn't have made sense for them to continue sue South, then cut across thinly settled Arkansas to reach the racially more or less integrated Indian Territory. I admit that comes in only rather obliquely at the end when Huck declares his readiness to "light out for the territories" -- would it have made sense at all? Wolfgang Hochbruck Englisches Seminar / Nordamerikastudien Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg Rempartstr. 15 D-79085 Freiburg