Quote 22
"They're in an awful peck of trouble, and—"
"WHO is?"
"Why, pap and mam and sis and Miss Hooker; and if you'd take your ferryboat and go up there—"
"Up where? Where are they?"
"On the wreck." (13.29-33)
Actually, this is a pretty good technique. Huck starts off with something vague—"they're" in "trouble"—and only fills in the details when other people ask. Not that we're giving advice, or anything.
Quote 23
"Well, this is too many for me, Jim. I hain't seen no fog, nor no islands, nor no troubles, nor nothing. I been setting here talking with you all night till you went to sleep about ten minutes ago, and I reckon I done the same. You couldn't a got drunk in that time, so of course you've been dreaming." (15.34)
Huck won't lie to his dad, but he has not problem lying to and deceiving Jim. He may not want to send Jim back to slavery, but it doesn't seem like Jim rates quite as highly as a white man in Huck's moral scale.
Quote 24
"Be done, boys! Who's there?"
I says:
It's me."
"Who's me?"
"George Jackson, sir." (17.2-17.6)
Okay, stay with us for some brain-bending thoughts: Huck is only half lying. See, the first thing he says is, "it's me." And it is! It's Huck himself, only Huck is going under the name George Jackson. Is this really a lie?