I would have left Tom in--too much fun to miss!--but had Huck decide he'd had enough of that and spring Jim the night before, so that Tom opens an empty shack and then has his famous getting-wounded-while-running-away scene but solitaire, without Jim and Huck, who have snuck across the river and headed... west! In a message dated 8/13/2008 9:46:36 AM Eastern Standard Time, [log in to unmask] writes: Is there historical documentation for real grifters of the Duke and the Dauphin sort in the antebellum river societies? I recall reading an assertion that they were stand-ins for the postwar influx of carpetbaggers, but I'm not sure I buy that thesis. DDD PS: What about accepting Hemingway's suggestion, and stopping just before Tom shows up? Does anyone do that? Trouble with that tact for a reader is, to that point, the plot /completely/ lacks resolution. Or, In counter-historical-fictional mode (would that be a signle word in German? ;-) ) : having learned more of the arts of dissimulation from the D & D, Huck and Jim could work up their cover story at the Quarles' farm, with Jim as Huck's putative slave, and then concoct a reason to take passage up the Ohio on some errand. Then, seek out some low-down Abolitionists, and finish their journey via the Underground RR, presumably getting to Canada. News of Miss Watson's deathbed manumission would then come along, providing a resolution, and a suitable close.