Dear Tom Sawyer,

Dear Tom,

How come you ain't found me yet? You know darn well I'm somewhere nobody ought to look. Or are you still recoverin from that gunshot? I reckon you think that makes us even but it don't. I still ain't forgived you for that fool rescue of yours on account of I got nothin out of it but trouble and aggravation. Least you could do is come find me seein as you owe me considerable.

I been sleepin down by the river mostly. I caught me a fish this mornin big as your head which ain't sayin a tremendous lot but it was a fine fish all the same. I cooked him up on a little fire I made my own self and I tell you Tom there ain't a meal on this green earth that tastes as good as the one you caught and cooked yourself. The Widow could learn a thing or two if she'd only quit prayin long enough to try.

You'd love it Tom I swear you would. The stars out here are somethin I can't rightly put words to and you know I ain't much for poetry. I lay there and look up and it don't matter one lick about Aunt Polly or the Widow Douglas or school or none of it. The river don't care who you are and I find that suits me considerable. Only thing is I miss Jim somethin fierce and I can't stop wonderin whereabouts he got to.

Sometimes I get to thinkin about Pap and a cold feelin comes over me I can't rightly shake loose. Now I know what you're fixin to say. You gonna say I ought to come back and be respectable and go to school and all that business you're always on about when you ain't pretendin to be a pirate or a robber or some other fool thing out of them books you always got your nose buried in. But I just can't seem to want what everybody says I ought to want. It's like tryin to make a cat sit still for church. Ain't no use in it.

Now Tom I ain’t writin no more letters so you better as well find me and don't you go tellin nobody I said any of this. You are the best friend I ever had even when you are bein a pure fool which is frequent. If you finally find me again you bring them cave candles and don't bring the short ones again. Last time we near suffocated.

Your friend truly,

Huck