Huckleberry Finn, Chapters 23-25

King

Comes out on the stage painted and naked. People love it. Apparently that's all they had planned, and that's the end of the show. CALLS HUCK ADOLPHUS (HIS SERVANT) TO KEEP THE KING DISGUISE GOING WHEN IN FRONT OF ELEXANDER BLODGETT.

Duke

Dresses Jim up. Puts a sign next to him that he is a sick Arab so no one comes near him if he's floating alone down the river and don't expect that he is a runaway slave.

King Henry VIII

Huck confuses this King with a King from the Arabian Nights. Says that he married a new woman everyday and killed them the next morning. Supposedly had a book called the DOOMSDAY (Domesday) BOOK. Father was the Duke of Wellington. Killed him.

Jim

Says his kids names (Elizabeth and Johnny). Misses them. Almost kind of homesick and Huck feels his pain for a brief moment. WHEN ALONE ON THE RAFT, HAS TO BE TIED UP SO HE DOESN'T LOOK LIKE HE RAN AWAY. Duke fixes this problem by dressing him up in KING LEAR'S outfit (Pretty much paints him blue).

Crowd

Starts to chant "Sold" (Tricked, deceived) once the duke and King end their show. A man jumps on the stage and says that he, as well as everyone else will be the laughing stock of the town if they come out and say that this happened, so he decides that they should tell everyone that the show was amazing so that they get tricked as well, so that they are "all in the same boat."

Elexander Blodgett (I KNOW THIS IS REALLY LONG BUT IT'S PROBABLY THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF THESE THREE CHAPTERS)

Tells Huck and the King all about the town they're headed to on the way there. Turns out, a wealthy man named PETER WILKS has just died. While he was sick, he had sent for his brothers WILLIAM (who is deaf and mute) and HARVEY (a preacher in England). But they haven't shown up yet, which means they missed the chance to say good-bye to their brother before he died. Still in town, however, are Peter's three nieces: Mary Jane (nineteen), Susan (fifteen), and Joanna (fourteen, has a harelip). The king is super interested (mostly because dead people equals money, in the inheritance sense) and pumps this guy for all the information he's got. He sends Huck to fetch the duke, and a new plot commences. The duke and king decide to play the part of the dead man's brothers. They travel to town and make a big stink about the fact that Peter died before they arrived. (The king is playing the part of the preacher, with a British accent and all, and the duke plays William, the deaf mute.) They all come into the town and everyone believes that the Duke and King are the real thing, even the nieces. Then they get to the business of the will; Peter allotted $3,000 and the house to the three nieces, and another three thousand and other property (WORTH SEVEN GRAND) to his brothers. The two conmen go down into the cellar where the six thousand in gold is hidden. They're REALLY excited and get to counting it right away. The money ends up being short: it's not quite six thousand as it should be. Actually, it's $415 SHORT. The cons are worried that the townsfolk will start to get suspicious if money is missing; they might think the brothers stole it. So the duke suggests making up the deficit using their own money (the profits from their play). The duke decides it would be even more impressive of them to go upstairs and publicly give all $6,000 to the girls. The king does so, but being the king, of course, he has to couch the presentation in all sorts of conditions. One little problem: the king doesn't actually know much about the actual circumstances. Like, he keeps referring to the "funeral orgies" (SEX JOKE) they're going to hold the next day. The duke, who is apparently less of a fool than the king, keeps trying to get his attention and tell him that, actually, the word is "obsequies." The king then has to publicly explain to the world that "orgies" is the British term. (Obviously not true) Everyone is all, "Oh, OK," except for one particularly not-stupid man, a doctor named ROBINSON, who acts quite the skeptic. Actually, he directly calls the king a fraud. No one likes a skeptic, and the townspeople rally behind the cons. To prove her faith in the two men, Mary Jane gives them back the $6,000 back and says she doesn't even want a receipt.

The Shows

There were three of them. The first and second one's were completely sold out. The third was also sold out, but was completely made up of people from the first and second shows. They were planning on throwing stuff at the duke and King. MADE $465 DOLLARS FROM ALL 3.

Huck

Thinks it would be too hard to explain to Jim that these men aren't actually kings, yet he already knows.

Duke and King

Want to try scamming another town, but Huck advises against it. Find a boy waiting on a steamboat headed to New Orleans (Reverena Elexander Blodgett). Tells Huck and the King to climb aboard.