The story begins in fictional St. Petersburg, Missouri, on the shore of the Mississippi River sometime in the later decades prior to the outbreak of the American Civil War. Huckleberry "Huck" Finn and his friend, Thomas "Tom" Sawyer, have each come into a considerable sum of money as a result of their earlier adventures. Huck explains how he is placed under the guardianship of the Widow Douglas, who, together with her stringent sister, Miss Watson,...