Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Chapter 38 Summary & Analysis

Tom insists that Jim make an inscription with his coat of arms on the wall of his hut, because all the prisoners in romances do. Jim says he doesn’t have a coat of arms, so Tom designs him one, which he describes using technical jargon that he doesn’t even really understand. Tom also writes inscriptions for Jim’s wall, all of which make him cry, so that he decides to have Jim carve them all into the wall.

Tom changes his mind. Jim can’t carve inscriptions onto the wooden walls of his hut; he must carve them into stone. Tom proposes, then, that he and Huck steal a grindstone to carve the inscriptions into, and which can also be used to file the pens and saw. Huck and Tom set out to the mill to get the grindstone and role it back to the hut.

When they have the grindstone halfway home, Tom and Huck realize that they can’t roll it all the way without help, because it is too heavy, so they go back to Jim’s hut. There, they make it so that Jim can walk freely even though he still has a chain around his ankle, and he goes out and helps Huck roll the grindstone the rest of the way home. Tom superintends with great skill, Huck notes: “He knowed how to do everything.”

Having gotten the grindstone home and re-chained Jim to his bed, the boys are ready to go to sleep. But before leaving Tom asks Jim if he could bring some spiders, rats, and snakes into Jim’s hut, so that Jim can befriend them as the prisoners do in the books. Jim begs Tom not to, but Tom insists. Jim faults Tom’s plan, to which Tom responds by saying that Jim is wasting his opportunity to be the best, most famous prisoner of all time. Jim apologizes to Tom, and the boys shove off for bed.