Huck Finn Lies and Deceit Quotes

First they done a lecture on temperance; but they didn’t make enough for them both to get drunk on. Then in another village they started a dancing-school; but they didn’t know no more how to dance than a kangaroo does…They tackled missionarying, and mesmerizing, and doctoring, and telling fortunes, and a little of everything; but they couldn’t seem to have no luck.

– Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 31. The two conmen, the King and Duke, travel from place to place trying on their scams but don’t have much luck making money.

She grabbed me and hugged me tight; and then gripped me by both hands, and shook and shook; and the tears come in her eyes, and run down over; and she couldn’t seem to hug and shake enough, and kept saying, “You don’t look as much like your mother as I reckoned you would; but law sakes, I don’t care for that, I’m so glad to see you! Dear, dear, it does seem like I could eat you up! Children, it’s your cousin Tom! – tell him howdy.”

– Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 32. Aunt Sally, Tom’s gullible and lovable aunt, welcomes Huck with open arms, thinking he is Tom. – and Huck keeps up the pretence that he is her nephew.

“It warn’t the grounding – that didn’t keep us back but a little. We blowed out a cylinder-head.”
“Good gracious! anybody hurt?”
“No’m. Killed a n*****.”
“Well, it’s lucky; because sometimes people do get hurt.”

– Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 32. Huck lies to Aunt Sally about an explosion on a steamship. Her reaction to a black man being killed reflects the fact that the society in which she lives does not consider the death of a black man important. Upstanding, church-going and caring she may be, but her reaction illustrates the hypocricy of societal mores at the time.

“No’m, I’m honest about it; I won’t ever do it again – till you ask me.”
“Till I ask you! Well, I never see the beat of it in my born days! I lay you’ll be the Methusalem – numskull of creation before ever I ask you – or the likes of you.”

– Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 33. A shocked Aunt Sally to nephew Tom Sawyer, whom she doesn’t recognize and is pretending to be William Thompson, after he kisses her full on the mouth. Methuselah is an allusion to the longest-living person in the Bible, who, according to Genesis, lived for 969 years.

We was very well satisfied with this business, and Tom allowed it was worth twice the trouble it took, because he said NOW she couldn’t ever count them spoons twice alike again to save her life; and wouldn’t believe she’d counted them right if she did; and said that after she’d about counted her head off for the next three days he judged she’d give it up and offer to kill anybody that wanted her to ever count them any more.

– Mark Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 37. Huck and Tom confuse and deceive Aunt Sally with tricks, such as continually stealing and replacing spoons. But all in a good cause – to distract her so they can free slave Jim.
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