Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Chapter 7 summary

Chapter 7 of 43 · 12 min to read the chapter

In Chapter 7, the narrator hides a drifting canoe, takes supplies from Pap’s cabin, and stages his own murder to prevent pursuit. After Pap returns from town, he slips downstream under cover of darkness and reaches Jackson’s Island, where he conceals the canoe and rests.

What happens

The narrator finds an empty canoe in the rising river and hides it from Pap.
Pap leaves to sell nine logs, allowing the narrator to escape through a sawed opening and load supplies into the canoe.
The narrator uses a pig’s blood, his hair, and a dragged sack of rocks to make the cabin suggest a murder.
He leaves a trail of cornmeal toward a lake to send anyone seeking the supposed robbers away from the river.
After spotting Pap rowing back, he paddles downstream and drifts past the ferry landing.
He reaches Jackson’s Island, hides his canoe among willows, and enters the woods to sleep as daylight approaches.