It all started when he and his buddy Tom Sawyer found a pile of money some robbers hid in a cave. Now Huck has $6,000 in the bank. Not bad for a "river rat."

Unfortunately, Widow Douglas took him in as her ward, and she's been trying her darndest to civilize him. She reads the Bible to him daily. Her spinster sister makes him practice his spelling. And they dress him in brand-new clothes that have him crawling out of his skin.

So he crawls out the window.

Soon he meets another runaway in the woods—a slave named Jim who's been sold to a trader downriver. But Jim has no intention of going. He wants to head up North to a free state where he can buy his family out of slavery.

The two embark on a dangerous journey up the Mississippi. If they are caught, the punishment will be severe. Will they make it past the river conmen and the oncoming steamships—or will they be sent back to "civilization"?

True friendship is fearless in Mark Twain's classic novel that has become a cornerstone of American literature.