CHAPTER 2 The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

Q: What is Tom Sawyer's Gang and what are its rules?

Tom Sawyer's Gang is a band of pretend robbers and highwaymen that Tom organizes in a cave. Members must sign a blood oath swearing secrecy, and anyone who reveals the gang's secrets will have his throat cut and his body burned. The gang's stated business is "robbery and murder"—specifically, they plan to act as highwaymen who stop stagecoaches and carriages. Tom insists they must ransom their captives, though none of the boys—including Tom—knows what ransoming actually means. The rules are drawn entirely from pirate and robber books, and Tom refuses to deviate from them regardless of practical objections.

Q: How does Chapter 2 contrast Huck and Tom Sawyer?

Chapter 2 establishes Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn as foils. Tom is a romantic who derives all his ideas from adventure novels and insists on following literary conventions to the letter, even when they make no practical sense—he cannot define "ransom" but demands the gang do it because "it's in the books." Huck, by contrast, is practical and cautious: he advises against tying Jim to the tree for fear of getting caught and worries about real consequences. Tom leads through bravado and imagination; Huck observes, adapts, and survives. This contrast deepens throughout the novel as Huck's moral instincts repeatedly prove superior to the society Tom represents.

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CHAPTER TWO

We went tip-toeing along a path amongst the trees back towards the end of the widow's garden, stooping down so as the branches wouldn't scrape our heads. When we was passing by the kitchen I fell over a root and made a noise. We scrouched down and laid still. Miss Watson's big nigger, named Jim, was setting in the kitchen door; we could see him pretty clear, because there was a light behind him. He got up and stretched his neck out about a minute, listening. Then he says:

"Who dah?"

He listened some more; then he come tip-toeing down and stood right between us; we could a touched him, nearly. Well, likely it was minutes and minutes that there warn't a sound, and we all there so close together. There was a place on my ankle that got to itching; but I dasn't scratch it; and then my ear begun to itch; and next my back, right between my shoulders. Seemed like I'd die if I couldn't scratch. Well, I've noticed that thing plenty of times since. If you are with the quality, or at a funeral, or trying to go to sleep when you ain't sleepy- if you are anywheres where it won't do for you to scratch, why you will itch all over in upwards of a thousand places. Pretty soon Jim says:

"Say- who is you? What is you? Dog my cats ef I didn' hear sumf'n. Well, I knows what I's gwyne to do. I's gwyne to set down here and listen tell I hears it agin."

So he set down on the ground betwixt me and Tom. He leaned his back up against a tree, and stretched his legs out till one of them most touched one of mine. My nose begun to itch. It itched till the tears come into my eyes. But I dasn't scratch. Then it begun to itch on the inside. Next I got to itching underneath. I didn't know how I was going to set still. This miserableness went on as much as six or seven minutes; but it seemed a sight longer than that. I was itching in eleven different places now. I reckoned I couldn't stand it more'n a minute longer, but I set my teeth hard and got ready to try. Just then Jim begun to breathe heavy; next he begun to snore- and then I was pretty soon comfortable again.

Tom he made a sign to me- kind of a little noise with his mouth- and we went creeping away on our hands and knees. When we was ten foot off, Tom whispered to me and wanted to tie Jim to the tree for fun; but I said no; he might wake and make a disturbance, and then they'd find out I warn't in. Then Tom said he hadn't got candles enough, and he would slip in the kitchen and get some more. I didn't want him to try. I said Jim might wake up and come. But Tom wanted to resk it; so we slid in there and got three candles, and Tom laid five cents on the table for pay. Then we got out, and I was in a sweat to get away; but nothing would do Tom but he must crawl to where Jim was, on his hands and knees, and play something on him. I waited, and it seemed a good while, everything was so still and lonesome.

As soon as Tom was back, we cut along the path, around the garden fence, and by-and-by fetched up on the steep top of the hill the other side of the house. Tom said he slipped Jim's hat off of his head and hung it on the limb right over him, and Jim stirred a little, but he didn't wake. Afterwards Jim said the witches bewitched him and put him in a trance, and rode him all over the State, and then set him under the trees again and hung his hat on a limb to show who done it. And next time Jim told it he said they rode him down to New Orleans; and after that, every time he told it he spread it more and more, till by-and-by he said they rode him over the world, and tired him most to death, and his back was all over saddle-boils. Jim was monstrous proud about it, and he got so he wouldn't hardly notice the other niggers. Niggers would come miles to hear Jim tell about it, and he was more looked up to than any nigger in that country. Strange niggers would stand with their mouths open and look him all over, same as if he was a wonder. Niggers is always talking about witches in the dark by the kitchen fire; but whenever one was talking and letting on to know all about such things, Jim would happen in and say, "Hm! What you know 'bout witches?" and that nigger was corked up and had to take a back seat. Jim always kept that five-center piece around his neck with a string and said it was a charm the devil give to him with his own hands and told him he could cure anybody with it and fetch witches whenever he wanted to, just by saying something to it; but he never told what it was he said to it. Niggers would come from all around there and give Jim anything they had, just for a sight of that five-center piece; but they wouldn't touch it, because the devil had had his hands on it. Jim was most ruined, for a servant, because he got so stuck up on account of having seen the devil and been rode by witches.

Well, when Tom and me got to the edge of the hill-top, we looked away down into the village and could see three or four lights twinkling, where there was sick folks, may be; and the stars over us was sparkling ever so fine; and down by the village was the river, a whole mile broad, and awful still and grand. We went down the hill and found Jo Harper, and Ben Rogers, and two or three more of the boys, hid in the old tanyard. So we unhitched a skiff and pulled down the river two mile and a half, to the big scar on the hillside, and went ashore.

We went to a clump of bushes, and Tom made everybody swear to keep the secret, and then showed them a hole in the hill, right in the thickest part of the bushes. Then we lit the candles and crawled in on our hands and knees. We went about two hundred yards, and then the cave opened up. Tom poked about amongst the passages and pretty soon ducked under a wall where you wouldn't a noticed that there was a hole. We went along a narrow place and got into a kind of room, all damp and sweaty and cold, and there we stopped. Tom says:

"Now we'll start this band of robbers and call it Tom Sawyer's Gang. Everybody that wants to join has got to take an oath, and write his name in blood."

Everybody was willing. So Tom got out a sheet of paper that he had wrote the oath on, and read it. It swore every boy to stick to the band, and never tell any of the secrets; and if anybody done anything to any boy in the band, whichever boy was ordered to kill that person and his family must do it, and he mustn't eat and he mustn't sleep till he had killed them and hacked a cross in their breasts, which was the sign of the band. And nobody that didn't belong to the band could use that mark, and if he did he must be sued; and if he done it again he must be killed. And if anybody that belonged to the band told the secrets, he must have his throat cut, and then have his carcass burnt up and the ashes scattered all around, and his name blotted off the list with blood and never mentioned again by the gang, but have a curse put on it and be forgot, forever.

Everybody said it was a real beautiful oath, and asked Tom if he got it out of his own head. He said, some of it, but the rest was out of pirate books, and robber books, and every gang that was high-toned had it.

Some thought it would be good to kill the families of boys that told the secrets. Tom said it was a good idea, so he took a pencil and wrote it in. Then Ben Rogers says:

"Here's Huck Finn, he hain't got no family- what you going to do 'bout him?"

"Well, hain't he got a father?" says Tom Sawyer.

"Yes, he's got a father, but you can't never find him, these days. He used to lay drunk with the hogs in the tanyard, but he hain't been seen in these parts for a year or more."

They talked it over, and they was going to rule me out, because they said every boy must have a family or somebody to kill, or else it wouldn't be fair and square for the others. Well, nobody could think of anything to do- everybody was stumped, and set still. I was most ready to cry; but all at once I thought of a way, and so I offered them Miss Watson- they could kill her. Everybody said:

"Oh, she'll do, she'll do. That's all right. Huck can come in."

Then they all stuck a pin in their fingers to get blood to sign with, and I made my mark on the paper.

"Now," says Ben Rogers, "what's the line of business of this Gang?"

"Nothing only robbery and murder," Tom said.

"But who are we going to rob? houses- or cattle- or-"

"Stuff! stealing cattle and such things ain't robbery, it's burglary," says Tom Sawyer. "We ain't burglars. That ain't no sort of style. We are highwaymen. We stop stages and carriages on the road, with masks on, and kill the people and take their watches and money."

"Must we always kill the people?"

"Oh, certainly. It's best. Some authorities think different, but mostly it's considered best to kill them. Except some that you bring to the cave here and keep them till they're ransomed."

"Ransomed? What's that?"

"I don't know. But that's what they do. I've seen it in books; and so of course that's what we've got to do."

"But how can we do it if we don't know what it is?"

"Why blame it all, we've to do it. Don't I tell you it's in the books? Do you want to go to doing different from what's in the books, and get things all muddled up?"

"Oh, that's all very fine to say, Tom Sawyer, but how in the nation are these fellows going to be ransomed if we don't know how to do it to them? that's the thing I want to get at. Now what do you reckon it is?"

"Well I don't know. But per'aps if we keep them till they're ransomed, it means that we keep them till they're dead."

"Now, that's something like. That'll answer. Why couldn't you said that before? We'll keep them till they're ransomed to death- and a bothersome lot they'll be, too, eating up everything and always trying to get loose."

"How you talk, Ben Rogers. How can they get loose when there's a guard over them, ready to shoot them down if they move a peg?"

"A guard. Well, that is good. So somebody's got to set up all night and never get any sleep, just so as to watch them. I think that's foolishness. Why can't a body take a club and ransom them as soon as they get here?"

"Because it ain't in the books- that's why. Now, Ben Rogers, do you want to do things regular, or don't you?- that's the idea. Don't you reckon that the people that made the books knows what's the correct thing to do? Do you reckon you can learn 'em anything? Not by a good deal. No, sir, we'll just go on and ransom them in the regular way."

"All right. I don't mind; but I say it's a fool way, anyhow. Say- do we kill the women, too?"

"Well, Ben Rogers, if I was as ignorant as you I wouldn't let on. Kill the women? No- nobody ever saw anything in the books like that. You fetch them to the cave, and you're always as polite as pie to them; and by-and-by they fall in love with you and never want to go home any more."

"Well, if that's the way, I'm agreed, but I don't take no stock in it. Mighty soon we'll have the cave so cluttered up with women, and fellows waiting to be ransomed, that they won't be no place for the robbers. But go ahead, I ain't got nothing to say."

Little Tommy Barnes was asleep, now, and when they waked him up he was scared, and cried, and said he wanted to go home to his ma, and didn't want to be a robber any more.

So they all made fun of him, and called him cry-baby, and that made him mad, and he said he would go straight and tell all the secrets. But Tom give him five cents to keep quiet, and said we would all go home and meet next week and rob somebody and kill some people.

Ben Rogers said he couldn't get out much, only Sundays, and so he wanted to begin next Sunday; but all the boys said it would be wicked to do it on Sunday, and that settled the thing. They agreed to get together and fix a day as soon as they could, and then we elected Tom Sawyer first captain and Jo Harper second captain of the Gang, and so started home.

I clumb up the shed and crept into my window just before day was breaking. My new clothes was all greased up and clayey, and I was dog-tired.

Frequently Asked Questions about CHAPTER 2 from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

What happens in Chapter 2 of Huckleberry Finn?

In Chapter 2, Huck and Tom Sawyer sneak out of the Widow Douglas's house at night and nearly get caught by Jim, Miss Watson's enslaved man, who hears a noise and sits down to listen. After Jim falls asleep, Tom steals candles from the kitchen, leaves five cents as payment, and plays a trick on Jim by removing his hat and hanging it on a tree limb. The boys then meet up with several other boys, travel by skiff to a cave, and form Tom Sawyer's Gang—a band of pretend robbers who swear a blood oath, elect officers, and debate the rules of highway robbery and ransoming, all based on Tom's reading of adventure novels.

What is the significance of Jim's witch story in Chapter 2?

After Tom Sawyer removes Jim's hat while he sleeps, Jim interprets the experience as a bewitchment. He tells others that witches rode him all over the state, and with each retelling, the journey grows more elaborate—eventually spanning the entire world. Jim transforms the five-cent piece Tom left into a charm from the devil, which he wears around his neck. The story is significant because it elevates Jim's social status among the enslaved community, establishes the motif of superstition that runs throughout the novel, and demonstrates Jim's skill as a storyteller. Twain uses the episode to explore how folk belief can function as a source of social power and identity.

What is Tom Sawyer's Gang and what are its rules?

Tom Sawyer's Gang is a band of pretend robbers and highwaymen that Tom organizes in a cave. Members must sign a blood oath swearing secrecy, and anyone who reveals the gang's secrets will have his throat cut and his body burned. The gang's stated business is "robbery and murder"—specifically, they plan to act as highwaymen who stop stagecoaches and carriages. Tom insists they must ransom their captives, though none of the boys—including Tom—knows what ransoming actually means. The rules are drawn entirely from pirate and robber books, and Tom refuses to deviate from them regardless of practical objections.

How does Chapter 2 contrast Huck and Tom Sawyer?

Chapter 2 establishes Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn as foils. Tom is a romantic who derives all his ideas from adventure novels and insists on following literary conventions to the letter, even when they make no practical sense—he cannot define "ransom" but demands the gang do it because "it's in the books." Huck, by contrast, is practical and cautious: he advises against tying Jim to the tree for fear of getting caught and worries about real consequences. Tom leads through bravado and imagination; Huck observes, adapts, and survives. This contrast deepens throughout the novel as Huck's moral instincts repeatedly prove superior to the society Tom represents.

What themes are introduced in Chapter 2 of Huckleberry Finn?

Chapter 2 introduces several of the novel's central themes. Satire of romanticism drives the Gang scenes, where Tom's blind adherence to "the books" mocks popular adventure fiction and the dangers of confusing literature with reality. The boys' refusal to rob on Sundays because it would be "wicked"—while planning murder and robbery—satirizes religious hypocrisy. Jim's witch-riding tale introduces superstition as social currency, a motif that recurs throughout the novel. The chapter also touches on social exclusion: Huck nearly gets expelled from the gang because he has no family, highlighting his status as an orphan and outsider. Finally, the panoramic view of the river from the hilltop foreshadows the river's symbolic importance as a space of freedom and natural beauty.

Why does Huck offer Miss Watson to the gang?

The gang's oath requires that if a member reveals secrets, his family must be killed as punishment. When Ben Rogers points out that Huck has no family—his father has not been seen in over a year—the boys consider excluding Huck from the gang. Huck, "most ready to cry," desperately offers Miss Watson as a substitute. The moment is both comic and poignant: it reveals Huck's deep loneliness and desire to belong, while also exposing the absurdity of the gang's rules. That Huck would volunteer Miss Watson—the very woman trying to "sivilize" him—adds an ironic layer, suggesting his ambivalent relationship with the people who care for him.