Huck And His Friends
1. What do you know about the parents of Huck?
= Huck's mother died soon after his birth and his father was a drunkard who treated him very badly.
2. How was the life of Huck under his father's supervision?
= Huck's father beat him so often that he ran away from him and lived like a wild boy in the woods. The naughtiest boys of the town were his friends and the chief of them was Tom Sawyer.
3. What was the happy time mentioned by Huck?
= Many exciting adventures and a great deal of fun which he had together with Tom Sawyer, are mentioned as the happy time.
4. When did the happy times come to an end?
= The happy time came to an end when Widow Douglas, in the kindness of her heart, took him into her house, intending to bring him up as her son.
5. How did Huck feel at Widow Douglas' house and how was his life there?
= Huck felt that he was in prison. He had to wash every day, to put on clean clothes and he even had to wear shoes. He couldn't eat when I liked but only at fixed meal-times. When Widow Douglas rang a bell, he had to sit down at table, using a knife and fork to eat. He had to go to bed early and stay in a bed all through the night.
6. Why the life at Widow Douglas' house was hard for him?
= The life at Widow Douglas' house was hard for him because he was used to sleeping in the woods or wandering about the streets at night-time.
7. Who was Widow Douglas' sister? How was she?
= Miss Watson was the sister of Widow Douglas.
She was an old maid with glasses and she used to teach Huck good manners.
8. How did Tom convince Huck to return to Widow Douglas' house?
= Tom told him that he is going to make a band of robbers. He was letting Joe Harper and Ben Rogers join the gang. He would let Huck join the same only if he go back to Widow Douglas' house.
9. How was the atmosphere on that day on which the signal of the first meeting of the band came to Huck?
= The signal of the first meeting of the band came late one night. Huck was sitting by his bedroom window, feeling lonely and miserable. In the distance an owl was crying about somebody who was going to die. The clock in the town struck twelve, and then all was still.
10. How/What was the signal of the meeting ?
= Huck suddenly heard the sound of a branch breaking in the dark among the trees. Something was moving down there. Soon he heard a faint sound of a cat and he knew that it was Tom Sawyer who had come for him.
11. Where was the meeting spot and who were another members of the band waiting there from before?
= Tom and Huck hurried to the bank of the river where Joe Harper, Ben Rogers and three other boys were waiting. Then they all climbed into a boat and rowed to a cave. It was damp and cold in the cave but they lit their candles and sat down in high spirits.
12. What was the swear that Tom Sawyer proposed for all the members of the band of robbers?
= Tom Sawyer proposed that everybody that wanted to join the gang, had got to swear to keep the rules and write his name in blood. Afterwards he had got to kill anybody who hurts any member of the band.
13. What was the gang planned to do?
= Tom Sawyer planned that they put masks on and stop carriages on the road. They rob people of their watches and their money. Sometimes they would kill them. Sometimes they bring them back to the cave and keep them there till they were ransomed.
14. Did they know the actual meaning of the word 'ransomed'? What is the actual meaning of the term?
= They did not know the actual meaning of the term 'ransomed'. They had that idea that perhaps 'ransomed' meant keeping the people till they are dead.
The actual meaning of the term 'ransomed' means to obtain money by keeping someone captive.
15. What did they plan to keep the captives in the cave?
= They thought of employing a guard in the cave to watch the captive men all the time. He would shoot them if they move a finger.
16. What they planned for the women?
= According the Tom Sawyer, they were gonna bring the women to their cave and treat them very politely. After a time, the women were gonna fall in love with the robbers and never want to leave them.
17. What was the opinion of Ben Rogers about keeping women in the cave and marrying them?
= According to Ben Rogers, the cave was gonna be full with the women and people waiting to be ransomed. There would not be any room left for them.
18. Whom they elected their captain?
= They elected Tom Sawyer as the captain of the gang and the meeting was over.
19. How did Huck return to his room at Widow Douglas'?
= Huck climbed on to the shed and in through the window just as day was breaking. His new clothes were dirty with candle-grease and mud, and he felt tired out.
20. What happened to Huck in the next morning?
= The next morning, Miss Watson gave him a good scolding because of his dirty clothes. Widow Douglas said nothing at all but just cleaned off the grease and the mud.
21. Why did Widow Douglas look sad?
= Widow Douglas looked sad because Huck decided to begin to change his ways-if he could.