You don't know me unless you read a book called The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Huck's my name, Huckleberry Finn. That book ends like this: my best friend, Tom Sawyer, and I found $12, 000 in gold in a cave. We became rich. We got $6, 000 each.
My mother died long ago and then my dad, Pap, disappeared. He was always drunk and he often beat me. Then a kind old lady called Widow Douglas took me into her home to live. She gave me a bed to sleep in and bought new clothes for me. She read stories to me and taught me how to eat at a table. She sent me to school every day.
I hated those new clothes. I missed my old life. I put on my old clothes and ran away and was free and happy, but Tom Sawyer found me and said that if I wanted to join his club, I would have to return to live with the widow. For this reason, I returned to live with her.
The months passed and winter came. The weather got cold. One morning I woke up and there was snow on the ground. On my way to school I saw some footprints outside the widow's house. My heart jumped. Pap!
"He's heard about my money, "I thought. "And he wants it!"
When I lit my candle and went up to my room that night, there sat Pap —his own self! I expected to be scared of him now, but I wasn't. I stood looking at him; he set there—looking at me.
Pap was nearly fifty years old. His black hair was long and uncombed and dirty. He had allowed hair to grow on his face, which was ghostly white. Just looking at the ugly white skin made me feel sick. His clothes?—dirty and torn. His feet showed through large holes in his shoes. His hat was on the floor—an old black hat with a large hole in it.
—Taken from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn
