Huck and his tricks

In Chapter 16, Huck and Jim run into a couple of white men who start questioning Huck about the raft. In this scene, Huck comes up with story about how his pap is on board the raft and is sick. Because of this plan, the men do not end up searching the raft because the men say, "we don't want the smallpox" (82), and therefore, the men do not find Jim, the runaway slave. Again in Chapter 17, Huck plays a trick, or comes up with a plan to figure out his fake name. In this scene, Huck tells Buck to try and spell his name. Once Buck has done it, Huck now knows what his name is again. Even though this may only be a small little trick, that may have little meaning, I believe that it helps to show how smart and quick thinking Huck is. In both of these instances, Huck has to think fast in order to not get caught.