Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (Barnes & Noble Classics Series) (50 page)

A mushmelon is a relative of the cantaloupe.

A steel cable that holds a boat’s smokestack in place.

This old saying is not from the Bible. Twain spoofs the impulse, in his time, to attribute all wisdom to “de good book.”

The officers’ room, the largest quarters, named for what was then the largest state in the union.

An enclosed space on the front of the upper deck of a boat, a shelter for the helmsman and the steering gear.

A pole in front of the hurricane deck.

Near the stem (rear) of a vessel.

Crawled backward, like a crawfish.

A rope used in a hanging.

Larboard; the left side of a vessel; also called the port side.

Acting sentimental; pretending strong emotional feelings.

A short staff at the front of a boat from which a flag is hung.

Money.

Eight dry quarts; a large quantity.

Got caught, entangled.

A slang euphemism for “darn country” or “damnation.”

Solomon, whose reign is recounted in the Bible’s First Book of Kings.

In the Bible, wise King Solomon settled a dispute between two women over who was the mother of a child by proposing to cut the infant in half. See the Bible, I Kings 3:16-28.

Consequence.

Dauphin; in France, the eldest prince.

Huck means “Parlez-vous français.”

Pronounced “KAY-ro”; an Illinois town on the Mississippi River, at the southern tip of free soil.

A sandbar or other obstruction making ripples in a body of water; in his notebooks Twain defined “tow-head” as “an infant island, a growing island.”

Leeward; the side turned in the opposite direction to the wind, as opposed to windward.

Step in a process or on a journey.

Jacket.

An annual published in England. Twain disliked its ornate artistic stylings and its sentimental pictures and poems.

Domestic Medicine, or Poor Man’s Friend, in the Hours of Affliction, Pain and Sickness
(1830), a handbook of home medicine that was widely used by rural families and their doctors.

Small amount.

A long, heavy, sharp knife.

Hand-printing in block letters, as opposed to cursive handwriting.

A stack of firewood.

Cornbread biscuits.

Good-humored American slang for a clumsy or uncouth fellow.

A large, flat-bottomed boat.

Suspenders.

Colloquial abbreviation for journeyman printer, one in training for the trade.

Ones who deceive or mislead.

A mighty punch.

The most famous British actor of the late eighteenth century.

The calling to be a professional actor.

Played a role on stage as an actor.

The critical theory, stated by Aristotle, that the art of drama should be consistently organized according to the “unities” of place, time, and action.

This long jumble of a speech borrows from three of Shakespeare’s dramas:
Hamlet, Macbeth,
and
Richard III.

In the racially blunt language of Twain’s era, this term indicated a strong black wad of tobacco, typically of an inferior quality.

A fool, usually a drunk.

All of my business, as a customer.

Foolish, funny pranks or tricks.

Tricked, deceived.

Huck confuses Henry VIII with the king in
The Arabian Nights.

A large cask of malmsey, a sweet wine.

Figure out.

A round post or rod.

Huck refers to the biblical story of Noah, in the book of Genesis, but mistakenly takes the name from the third book of the Old Testament.

Boy.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

One whose trade is to convert animal skins into leather by tanning them—that is, treating them with tannic acid.

A small boat for fishing, often kept by a larger boat for small trips.

A person with a harelip, a cleft caused by arrested growth of the upper lip; the name comes from its resemblance to the lip of a hare or rabbit.

Nonsense or trifling talk, perhaps designed to mislead.

A doxology, a brief church song expressing praise and thanksgiving. One of the best known is “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”

Colloquial past tense of the verb “bleat”: to make the sound of a sheep or goat. Figuratively, as used here: talked noisily, impulsively, and hollowly.

Gold coins of U.S. currency.

An orgy was an ancient Greek or Roman rite that involved extravagant dancing, singing, and drinking; originally it was a festival in honor of the gods of bawdy revelry and strong drink.

The correct term for funeral rites.

Valet; personal attendant.

Water from Congress Springs, New York, renowned for its healing power.

A sharp scolding. The reference is to the popular hymn “A Funeral Thought,” by Isaac Watt.

To gather and store, as honey is hived.

Gently coaxing.

Melodeon, a musical instrument that—with keyboard, foot-pedals, and bellows—combines aspects of the organ, accordion, and reeds.

Sickly.

Contracts permitting buyers to pay in installments on three specified days.

Theatrical.

Shallow water; figuratively, the dangerous, difficult part.

She had the kindness and independence of mind to pray for Judas Iscariot, the notorious betrayer of Jesus Christ.

Erysipelas is a serious skin disease. Consumption is another term for tuberculosis, a deadly disease that was more widespread in the nineteenth century than it is today. Jaundice is a disease that gives the skin a yellow cast.

A plow with many blades that sift and smooth the soil.

Slang for a fool or simpleton.

Colloquial phrase meaning they did not turn the slightest degree pale.

Silly, stupid people.

Fireflies; lightning bugs.

Exhausted.

Steal.

Deficit; amount of money owed or short of what is necessary.

A rapid, noisy talk.

Moderation in or abstinence from drinking alcohol.

Huck combines yelling and elocution, the art of public speaking.

A sleazy bar.

Huck cleverly uses the stereotyped view of the black slave—as horrifically violent, even against a child—to lend an air of authenticity to his tale.

Barrel of lye and ashes for making soap.

The steamboat’s cylindrical chamber in which the steam acts upon the piston.

The head of a common bolt or metal pin, like a screw’s head.

Audacious; bold.

Seneschal; an official of a medieval noble to whom great authority over household matters was entrusted.

Languedoc, a region and former province in southern France.

The kingdom to which Henry IV escaped from England.

The hero of
The Man in the Iron Mask
(serialized 1848-1850), by Alexandre Dumas the Elder (1802-1870).

The luminescence that certain fungi cause in decaying wood.

Chateau d‘If, in
The Count of Monte Cristo
(1845, translated 1846), by Alexandre Dumas the Elder.

Steal.

Large kitchen knives.

Counterpane; bedspread.

Pouring out in a rush of liquid.

Characters from William Harrison Ainsworth’s romance
The Tower of London
(1840).

A popular expression of the time that actually means “the more haste, the less action.”

Stalks of a coarse, woolly, tall, yellow flower.

Stupid; a mullet is a freshwater fish with a large, flat head.

Reputedly the last words of King Louis XVI of France.

A state of despondent abstraction or musing.

The Devil.