What happens in Chapter 10 of Huckleberry Finn?

In Chapter 10, Huck and Jim examine the clothes they salvaged from the floating house and find eight dollars sewn into an overcoat lining. Huck boasts that the snake-skin he found has brought good luck, but Jim warns that bad luck is coming. On Friday, Huck kills a rattlesnake and places it on Jim's blanket as a prank. The dead snake's mate bites Jim on the heel. Jim treats the wound with whiskey and folk remedies and is laid up for four days. After recovering, they catch an enormous catfish. Huck then disguises himself as a girl at Jim's suggestion and crosses the river to gather news.

Why does Jim get bitten by a rattlesnake in Chapter 10?

Jim gets bitten because Huck plays a thoughtless prank. Huck kills a rattlesnake and curls it on the foot of Jim's blanket, intending it as a joke. He then forgets about it. When Jim lies down that night, the dead snake's mate has curled up beside it—following the natural behavior that a snake's mate will always come to a dead snake—and bites Jim on the heel. Huck secretly disposes of both snakes so Jim will not discover who caused the injury.

What is the significance of the snake-skin in Chapter 10 of Huckleberry Finn?

The snake-skin functions as a symbol of superstition and foreshadowing. In earlier chapters, Jim warned Huck that touching a snake-skin with bare hands is the worst bad luck possible. Huck dismisses this in Chapter 10, pointing to their eight-dollar windfall as proof of good luck. Jim's reply—"It's a-comin'"—is fulfilled almost immediately when the rattlesnake prank backfires. The incident convinces Huck to respect Jim's folk beliefs, and Jim notes they may not have seen the end of the snake-skin's bad luck, foreshadowing later misfortunes in the novel.

How does Jim treat his snakebite in Chapter 10?

Jim uses several folk remedies to treat the rattlesnake bite. He drinks heavily from Pap's whiskey jug to dull the pain. He has Huck chop off the snake's head and throw it away, then skin and roast a piece of the snake's body, which he eats, believing it will help cure him. He also has Huck tie the rattles around his wrist as an additional remedy. Jim's foot and leg swell severely, and he is delirious at times, but after four days and nights, the swelling goes down and he recovers.

Why does Huck disguise himself as a girl at the end of Chapter 10?

Huck grows restless on Jackson's Island and wants to find out what is happening in town. Jim agrees but insists Huck must go in the dark and be careful. Jim then suggests that Huck dress as a girl using the calico gowns they salvaged from the floating house. They shorten a gown, Huck tucks up his trouser legs, and Jim hitches the dress with hooks. Huck wears a sun-bonnet and practices moving like a girl all day before crossing the river to the Illinois shore in the canoe after dark.

What role does superstition play in Chapter 10 of Huckleberry Finn?

Superstition is the central thematic thread of Chapter 10. Jim refuses to discuss the dead man for fear of being haunted. He warns that the snake-skin will bring bad luck, which proves true with the rattlesnake bite. After recovering, Jim says he would rather see the new moon over his left shoulder a thousand times than handle a snake-skin. Huck recounts the story of Old Hank Bunker, who looked at the new moon over his left shoulder and later died falling from a shot tower. Twain uses these layered superstitions to explore the folk belief systems of the antebellum South while developing the bond between Huck and Jim.

CHAPTER 10 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

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CHAPTER TEN

After breakfast I wanted to talk about the dead man and guess out how he come to be killed, but Jim didn't want to. He said it would fetch bad luck; and besides, he said, he might come and ha'nt us; he said a man that warn't buried was more likely to go a-ha'nting around than one that was planted and comfortable. That sounded pretty reasonable, so I didn't say no more; but I couldn't keep from studying over it and wishing I knowed who shot the man, and what they done it for.

We rummaged the clothes we'd got, and found eight dollars in silver sewed up in the lining of an old blanket overcoat. Jim said he reckoned the people in that house stole the coat, because if they'd a knowed the money was there they wouldn't a left it. I said I reckoned they killed him, too; but Jim didn't want to talk about that. I says:

"Now you think it's bad luck; but what did you say when I fetched in the snake-skin that I found on the top of the ridge day before yesterday? You said it was the worst bad luck in the world to touch a snake-skin with my hands. Well, here's your bad luck! We've raked in all this truck and eight dollars besides. I wish we could have some bad luck like this every day, Jim."

"Never you mind, honey, never you mind. Don't you git too peart. It's a-comin'. Mind I tell you, it's a-comin'."

It did come, too. It was a Tuesday that we had that talk. Well, after dinner Friday, we was laying around in the grass at the upper end of the ridge, and got out of tobacco. I went to the cavern to get some, and found a rattlesnake in there. I killed him, and curled him up on the foot of Jim's blanket, ever so natural, thinking there'd be some fun when Jim found him there. Well, by night I forgot all about the snake, and when Jim flung himself down on the blanket while I struck a light, the snake's mate was there, and bit him.

He jumped up yelling, and the first thing the light showed was the varmit curled up and ready for another spring. I laid him out in a second with a stick, and Jim grabbed pap's whisky jug and begun to pour it down.

He was barefooted, and the snake bit him on the heel. That all comes of my being such a fool as to not remember that wherever you leave a dead snake its mate always comes and curls around it. Jim told me to chop off the snake's head and throw it away, and then skin the body and roast a piece of it. I done it, and he eat it and said it would help cure him. He made me take off the rattles and tie them around his wrist, too. He said that would help. Then I slid out quiet and throwed the snakes clear away amongst the bushes; for I warn't going to let Jim find out it was all my fault, not if I could help it.

Jim sucked and sucked at the jug, and now and then he got out of his head and pitched around and yelled; but every time he come to himself he went to sucking at the jug again. His foot swelled up pretty big, and so did his leg; but by-and-by the drunk begun to come, and so I judged he was all right; but I'd druther been bit with a snake than pap's whisky.

Jim was laid up for four days and nights. Then the swelling was all gone and he was around again. I made up my mind I wouldn't ever take aholt of a snake-skin again with my hands, now that I see what had come of it. Jim said he reckoned I would believe him next time. And he said that handling a snake-skin was such awful bad luck that maybe we hadn't got to the end of it yet. He said he druther see the new moon over his left shoulder as much as a thousand times than take up a snake-skin in his hand. Well, I was getting to feel that way myself, though I've always reckoned that looking at the new moon over your left shoulder is one of the carelessest and foolishest things a body can do. Old Hank Bunker done it once, and bragged about it; and in less than two years he got drunk and fell off of the shot tower and spread himself out so that he was just a kind of a layer, as you may say; and they slid him edgeways between two barn doors for a coffin, and buried him so, so they say, but I didn't see it. Pap told me. But anyway, it all come of looking at the moon that way, like a fool.

Well, the days went along, and the river went down between its banks again; and about the first thing we done was to bait one of the big hooks with a skinned rabbit and set it and catch a cat-fish that was as big as a man, being six foot two inches long, and weighed over two hundred pounds. We couldn't handle him, of course; he would a flung us into Illinois. We just set there and watched him rip and tear around till he drownded. We found a brass button in his stomach, and a round ball, and lots of rubbage. We split the ball open with the hatchet, and there was a spool in it. Jim said he'd had it there a long time, to coat it over so and make a ball of it. It was as big a fish as was ever catched in the Mississippi, I reckon. Jim said he hadn't ever seen a bigger one. He would a been worth a good deal over at the village. They peddle out such a fish as that by the pound in the market house there; everybody buys some of him; his meat's as white as snow and makes a good fry.

Next morning I said it was getting slow and dull, and I wanted to get a stirring up, some way. I said I reckoned I would slip over the river and find out what was going on. Jim liked that notion; but he said I must go in the dark and look sharp. Then he studied it over and said, couldn't I put on some of them old things and dress up like a girl? That was a good notion, too. So we shortened up one of the calico gowns and I turned up my trowser-legs to my knees and got into it. Jim hitched it behind with the hooks, and it was a fair fit. I put on the sun-bonnet and tied it under my chin, and then for a body to look in and see my face was like looking down a joint of stove-pipe. Jim said nobody would know me, even in the daytime, hardly. I practiced around all day to get the hang of the things, and by-and-by I could do pretty well in them, only Jim said I didn't walk like a girl; and he said I must quit pulling up my gown to get at my britches pocket. I took notice, and done better.

I started up the Illinois shore in the canoe just after dark.

I started across to the town from a little below the ferry landing, and the drift of the current fetched me in at the bottom of the town. I tied up and started along the bank. There was a light burning in a little shanty that hadn't been lived in for a long time, and I wondered who had took up quarters there. I slipped up and peeped in at the window. There was a woman about forty year old in there, knitting by a candle that was on a pine table. I didn't know her face; she was a stranger, for you couldn't start a face in that town that I didn't know. Now this was lucky, because I was weakening; I was getting afraid I had come; people might know my voice and find me out. But if this woman had been in such a little town two days she could tell me all I wanted to know; so I knocked at the door, and made up my mind I wouldn't forget I was a girl.