Chapter 25 - A crowd gathers at the Wilks home to watch Wilks’s three nieces tearfully greet the duke and the dauphin, whom they believe to be their English uncles. The entire town then joins in. Huck finds this very disturbing. The letter Wilks has left behind bequeaths the house and $3,000 to his nieces. His brothers stand to inherit another $3,000, along with more than double that amount in real estate.
I was wondering why Huck found this disgusting. Does it bother him that the nieces are in need for things?Chapter 26 - The dauphin arranges to stay in the Wilks house. Huck has supper with Joanna, the youngest Wilks sister tests Huck’s knowledge of England, and he makes several slips, forgetting that he is supposedly from Sheffield and that the dauphin is supposed to be a Protestant minister. Finally, Joanna asks if he has made the entire thing up. Joanna’s sisters, Mary Jane and Susan, interrupt and instruct Joanna to be courteous to their guest, and she graciously apologizes. I found it funny that Huck didn’t have that much back knowledge on England and looked pretty silly towards the daughters.
Chapter 27 - Huck hides the sack of money in Peter Wilks’s coffin as Mary Jane, crying, enters the front room where her dead father’s body lies. Huck starts to worry about what will happen to it. Saying he will take the Wilks girls to England, the dauphin sells off the estate and the slaves, sending a slave mother to New Orleans and her two sons to Memphis. I thought it would have been easier, (this most likely wouldn’t have happened), to just let the slaves free. During this time though, this would have been very troublesome.Chapter 28 - The next morning, Huck finds Mary Jane crying in her bedroom.
All her joy about the trip to England has given way to distress over the separation of the slave family. Touched, Huck unthinkingly blurts out that the family will be reunited in less than two weeks. Mary Jane, overjoyed, asks Huck to explain. Huck feels uneasy, for he has little experience telling the truth while in a predicament. He tells Mary Jane the truth but asks her to wait at a friend’s house until later that night in order to give him time to get away. As I said in the beginning, you should never lie! Because things like this would happen.
One lie can go through many places.Chapter 29 - The real Harvey Wilks, in an authentic English accent, explains the reasons he and his brother, William, were delayed: their luggage was misdirected, and his mute brother broke his arm, leaving him unable to communicate by signs. Doctor Robinson again declares the duke and the dauphin to be frauds and has the crowd bring the real and the fraudulent Wilks brothers to a tavern for examination. The frauds draw suspicion when they fail to produce the $6,000 from the Wilks inheritance.
Bad things happen to bad people. This phrase works perfectly here. From being frauds for such a long time, it ended up hurting them at the end.Chapter 30 - The dauphin nearly strangles Huck out of anger at his desertion, but the duke stops him.
The con men explain that they escaped after the gold was found. The duke and the dauphin each believe that the other hid the gold in the coffin to retrieve it later, without the other knowing. They nearly come to blows but eventually make up and go to sleep. I was actually partially happy that they escaped safely, however I didn’t like how the dauphin was chocking my boy Huck!
