{"id":"01KG2TRB6YPQ11DAWWBY8G0TWV","cid":"bafkreicb2ehz24h2av5cjpyttkq7ybndrobk6k426b4bucbll7iq5sxb2y","type":"chapter","properties":{"description":"# CHAPTER XXV  \n## Overview  \nThis entity is [CHAPTER XXV](arke:01KG2TRB6YPQ11DAWWBY8G0TWV) from the novel [The Adventures of Tom Sawyer](arke:01KG2TP9MA26GMS73H3R2KPN3R), a chapter-length narrative segment extracted from the text file [tom_sawyer.txt](arke:01KG2T4RHC4E1XKJ12BJRXE8E8). It follows [CHAPTER XXIV](arke:01KG2TRB66XTREW9QP1BNF0795) and precedes [CHAPTER XXVI](arke:01KG2TRBJ3N8PQZE3STX3F94JX) in the novel’s sequence. The chapter details Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn’s enthusiastic but ultimately futile attempt to locate hidden treasure, structured around a series of scenes including planning, digging, supernatural speculation, and decision-making.\n\n## Context  \nThis chapter occurs during a pivotal phase in Tom’s post-trial life, shortly after the events of Chapter XXIV, in which he becomes a local hero for exposing Injun Joe’s crime. While publicly celebrated, Tom is privately tormented by fear of retaliation, which subtly underlies his and Huck’s adventures. The chapter reflects the boys’ imaginative world, shaped by superstition, adventure stories, and a desire to escape their mundane realities. It is part of the larger narrative arc in which Tom and Huck transition from playful escapism to increasingly dangerous encounters with real criminal elements, foreshadowing their later discovery of Injun Joe’s treasure in the haunted house.\n\n## Contents  \nThe chapter centers on Tom and Huck’s treasure hunt, beginning with Tom’s sudden inspiration to dig for riches. They first attempt to excavate under a dead tree on the hill near the Still-House branch, working through the afternoon without success. When their efforts fail, Tom theorizes that they must dig at midnight, when the shadow of a tree limb marks the spot—prompting them to plan a nighttime return. That night, they dig again, only to realize they may have miscalculated the time. Frightened by the eerie atmosphere, whispers of spirits, and the presence of ghosts and witches, they abandon the site. Convinced that haunted houses are more reliable treasure locations, they decide to shift their efforts to the “ha’nted” house on Cardiff Hill. The chapter ends as they approach the ominous, decaying structure under moonlight, too fearful to enter, and resolve to return another day. Key themes include childhood imagination, superstition, fear of the supernatural, and the contrast between romantic adventure and reality.","description_generated_at":"2026-01-28T17:38:39.168Z","description_model":"Qwen/Qwen3-235B-A22B-Instruct-2507","description_title":"CHAPTER XXV","end_line":6483,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T17:34:54.507Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"CHAPTER XXV","source_file":"01KG2T4RHC4E1XKJ12BJRXE8E8","start_line":6155,"text":"CHAPTER XXV\r\n\r\n\r\nThere comes a time in every rightly-constructed boy’s life when he has\r\na raging desire to go somewhere and dig for hidden treasure. This desire\r\nsuddenly came upon Tom one day. He sallied out to find Joe Harper,\r\nbut failed of success. Next he sought Ben Rogers; he had gone fishing.\r\nPresently he stumbled upon Huck Finn the Red-Handed. Huck would\r\nanswer. Tom took him to a private place and opened the matter to him\r\nconfidentially. Huck was willing. Huck was always willing to take a hand\r\nin any enterprise that offered entertainment and required no capital,\r\nfor he had a troublesome superabundance of that sort of time which is\r\nnot money. “Where’ll we dig?” said Huck.\r\n\r\n“Oh, most anywhere.”\r\n\r\n“Why, is it hid all around?”\r\n\r\n“No, indeed it ain’t. It’s hid in mighty particular places,\r\nHuck—sometimes on islands, sometimes in rotten chests under the end of\r\na limb of an old dead tree, just where the shadow falls at midnight; but\r\nmostly under the floor in ha’nted houses.”\r\n\r\n“Who hides it?”\r\n\r\n“Why, robbers, of course—who’d you reckon? Sunday-school\r\nsup’rintendents?”\r\n\r\n“I don’t know. If ’twas mine I wouldn’t hide it; I’d spend it and have a\r\ngood time.”\r\n\r\n“So would I. But robbers don’t do that way. They always hide it and\r\nleave it there.”\r\n\r\n“Don’t they come after it any more?”\r\n\r\n“No, they think they will, but they generally forget the marks, or else\r\nthey die. Anyway, it lays there a long time and gets rusty; and by and\r\nby somebody finds an old yellow paper that tells how to find the marks—a\r\npaper that’s got to be ciphered over about a week because it’s mostly\r\nsigns and hy’roglyphics.”\r\n\r\n“Hyro—which?”\r\n\r\n“Hy’roglyphics—pictures and things, you know, that don’t seem to mean\r\nanything.”\r\n\r\n“Have you got one of them papers, Tom?”\r\n\r\n“No.”\r\n\r\n“Well then, how you going to find the marks?”\r\n\r\n“I don’t want any marks. They always bury it under a ha’nted house or on\r\nan island, or under a dead tree that’s got one limb sticking out. Well,\r\nwe’ve tried Jackson’s Island a little, and we can try it again some\r\ntime; and there’s the old ha’nted house up the Still-House branch, and\r\nthere’s lots of dead-limb trees—dead loads of ’em.”\r\n\r\n“Is it under all of them?”\r\n\r\n“How you talk! No!”\r\n\r\n“Then how you going to know which one to go for?”\r\n\r\n“Go for all of ’em!”\r\n\r\n“Why, Tom, it’ll take all summer.”\r\n\r\n“Well, what of that? Suppose you find a brass pot with a hundred dollars\r\nin it, all rusty and gray, or rotten chest full of di’monds. How’s\r\nthat?”\r\n\r\nHuck’s eyes glowed.\r\n\r\n“That’s bully. Plenty bully enough for me. Just you gimme the hundred\r\ndollars and I don’t want no di’monds.”\r\n\r\n“All right. But I bet you I ain’t going to throw off on di’monds. Some\r\nof ’em’s worth twenty dollars apiece—there ain’t any, hardly, but’s\r\nworth six bits or a dollar.”\r\n\r\n“No! Is that so?”\r\n\r\n“Cert’nly—anybody’ll tell you so. Hain’t you ever seen one, Huck?”\r\n\r\n“Not as I remember.”\r\n\r\n“Oh, kings have slathers of them.”\r\n\r\n“Well, I don’ know no kings, Tom.”\r\n\r\n“I reckon you don’t. But if you was to go to Europe you’d see a raft of\r\n’em hopping around.”\r\n\r\n“Do they hop?”\r\n\r\n“Hop?—your granny! No!”\r\n\r\n“Well, what did you say they did, for?”\r\n\r\n“Shucks, I only meant you’d _see_ ’em—not hopping, of course—what do\r\nthey want to hop for?—but I mean you’d just see ’em—scattered around,\r\nyou know, in a kind of a general way. Like that old humpbacked Richard.”\r\n\r\n“Richard? What’s his other name?”\r\n\r\n“He didn’t have any other name. Kings don’t have any but a given name.”\r\n\r\n“No?”\r\n\r\n“But they don’t.”\r\n\r\n“Well, if they like it, Tom, all right; but I don’t want to be a king\r\nand have only just a given name, like a nigger. But say—where you going\r\nto dig first?”\r\n\r\n“Well, I don’t know. S’pose we tackle that old dead-limb tree on the\r\nhill t’other side of Still-House branch?”\r\n\r\n“I’m agreed.”\r\n\r\nSo they got a crippled pick and a shovel, and set out on their\r\nthree-mile tramp. They arrived hot and panting, and threw themselves\r\ndown in the shade of a neighboring elm to rest and have a smoke.\r\n\r\n“I like this,” said Tom.\r\n\r\n“So do I.”\r\n\r\n“Say, Huck, if we find a treasure here, what you going to do with your\r\nshare?”\r\n\r\n“Well, I’ll have pie and a glass of soda every day, and I’ll go to every\r\ncircus that comes along. I bet I’ll have a gay time.”\r\n\r\n“Well, ain’t you going to save any of it?”\r\n\r\n“Save it? What for?”\r\n\r\n“Why, so as to have something to live on, by and by.”\r\n\r\n“Oh, that ain’t any use. Pap would come back to thish-yer town some day\r\nand get his claws on it if I didn’t hurry up, and I tell you he’d clean\r\nit out pretty quick. What you going to do with yourn, Tom?”\r\n\r\n“I’m going to buy a new drum, and a sure’nough sword, and a red necktie\r\nand a bull pup, and get married.”\r\n\r\n“Married!”\r\n\r\n“That’s it.”\r\n\r\n“Tom, you—why, you ain’t in your right mind.”\r\n\r\n“Wait—you’ll see.”\r\n\r\n“Well, that’s the foolishest thing you could do. Look at pap and my\r\nmother. Fight! Why, they used to fight all the time. I remember, mighty\r\nwell.”\r\n\r\n“That ain’t anything. The girl I’m going to marry won’t fight.”\r\n\r\n“Tom, I reckon they’re all alike. They’ll all comb a body. Now you\r\nbetter think ’bout this awhile. I tell you you better. What’s the name\r\nof the gal?”\r\n\r\n“It ain’t a gal at all—it’s a girl.”\r\n\r\n“It’s all the same, I reckon; some says gal, some says girl—both’s\r\nright, like enough. Anyway, what’s her name, Tom?”\r\n\r\n“I’ll tell you some time—not now.”\r\n\r\n“All right—that’ll do. Only if you get married I’ll be more lonesomer\r\nthan ever.”\r\n\r\n“No you won’t. You’ll come and live with me. Now stir out of this and\r\nwe’ll go to digging.”\r\n\r\nThey worked and sweated for half an hour. No result. They toiled another\r\nhalfhour. Still no result. Huck said:\r\n\r\n“Do they always bury it as deep as this?”\r\n\r\n“Sometimes—not always. Not generally. I reckon we haven’t got the right\r\nplace.”\r\n\r\nSo they chose a new spot and began again. The labor dragged a little,\r\nbut still they made progress. They pegged away in silence for some time.\r\nFinally Huck leaned on his shovel, swabbed the beaded drops from his\r\nbrow with his sleeve, and said:\r\n\r\n“Where you going to dig next, after we get this one?”\r\n\r\n“I reckon maybe we’ll tackle the old tree that’s over yonder on Cardiff\r\nHill back of the widow’s.”\r\n\r\n“I reckon that’ll be a good one. But won’t the widow take it away from\r\nus, Tom? It’s on her land.”\r\n\r\n“_She_ take it away! Maybe she’d like to try it once. Whoever finds one\r\nof these hid treasures, it belongs to him. It don’t make any difference\r\nwhose land it’s on.”\r\n\r\nThat was satisfactory. The work went on. By and by Huck said:\r\n\r\n“Blame it, we must be in the wrong place again. What do you think?”\r\n\r\n“It is mighty curious, Huck. I don’t understand it. Sometimes witches\r\ninterfere. I reckon maybe that’s what’s the trouble now.”\r\n\r\n“Shucks! Witches ain’t got no power in the daytime.”\r\n\r\n“Well, that’s so. I didn’t think of that. Oh, I know what the matter is!\r\nWhat a blamed lot of fools we are! You got to find out where the shadow\r\nof the limb falls at midnight, and that’s where you dig!”\r\n\r\n“Then consound it, we’ve fooled away all this work for nothing. Now hang\r\nit all, we got to come back in the night. It’s an awful long way. Can\r\nyou get out?”\r\n\r\n“I bet I will. We’ve got to do it tonight, too, because if somebody sees\r\nthese holes they’ll know in a minute what’s here and they’ll go for it.”\r\n\r\n“Well, I’ll come around and maow tonight.”\r\n\r\n“All right. Let’s hide the tools in the bushes.”\r\n\r\nThe boys were there that night, about the appointed time. They sat in\r\nthe shadow waiting. It was a lonely place, and an hour made solemn by\r\nold traditions. Spirits whispered in the rustling leaves, ghosts lurked\r\nin the murky nooks, the deep baying of a hound floated up out of the\r\ndistance, an owl answered with his sepulchral note. The boys were\r\nsubdued by these solemnities, and talked little. By and by they judged\r\nthat twelve had come; they marked where the shadow fell, and began to\r\ndig. Their hopes commenced to rise. Their interest grew stronger, and\r\ntheir industry kept pace with it. The hole deepened and still deepened,\r\nbut every time their hearts jumped to hear the pick strike upon\r\nsomething, they only suffered a new disappointment. It was only a stone\r\nor a chunk. At last Tom said:\r\n\r\n“It ain’t any use, Huck, we’re wrong again.”\r\n\r\n“Well, but we _can’t_ be wrong. We spotted the shadder to a dot.”\r\n\r\n“I know it, but then there’s another thing.”\r\n\r\n“What’s that?”\r\n\r\n“Why, we only guessed at the time. Like enough it was too late or too\r\nearly.”\r\n\r\nHuck dropped his shovel.\r\n\r\n“That’s it,” said he. “That’s the very trouble. We got to give this one\r\nup. We can’t ever tell the right time, and besides this kind of thing’s\r\ntoo awful, here this time of night with witches and ghosts a-fluttering\r\naround so. I feel as if something’s behind me all the time; and I’m\r\nafeard to turn around, becuz maybe there’s others in front a-waiting for\r\na chance. I been creeping all over, ever since I got here.”\r\n\r\n“Well, I’ve been pretty much so, too, Huck. They most always put in a\r\ndead man when they bury a treasure under a tree, to look out for it.”\r\n\r\n“Lordy!”\r\n\r\n“Yes, they do. I’ve always heard that.”\r\n\r\n“Tom, I don’t like to fool around much where there’s dead people. A\r\nbody’s bound to get into trouble with ’em, sure.”\r\n\r\n“I don’t like to stir ’em up, either. S’pose this one here was to stick\r\nhis skull out and say something!”\r\n\r\n“Don’t Tom! It’s awful.”\r\n\r\n“Well, it just is. Huck, I don’t feel comfortable a bit.”\r\n\r\n“Say, Tom, let’s give this place up, and try somewheres else.”\r\n\r\n“All right, I reckon we better.”\r\n\r\n“What’ll it be?”\r\n\r\nTom considered awhile; and then said:\r\n\r\n“The ha’nted house. That’s it!”\r\n\r\n“Blame it, I don’t like ha’nted houses, Tom. Why, they’re a dern sight\r\nworse’n dead people. Dead people might talk, maybe, but they don’t come\r\nsliding around in a shroud, when you ain’t noticing, and peep over your\r\nshoulder all of a sudden and grit their teeth, the way a ghost does. I\r\ncouldn’t stand such a thing as that, Tom—nobody could.”\r\n\r\n“Yes, but, Huck, ghosts don’t travel around only at night. They won’t\r\nhender us from digging there in the daytime.”\r\n\r\n“Well, that’s so. But you know mighty well people don’t go about that\r\nha’nted house in the day nor the night.”\r\n\r\n“Well, that’s mostly because they don’t like to go where a man’s been\r\nmurdered, anyway—but nothing’s ever been seen around that house except\r\nin the night—just some blue lights slipping by the windows—no regular\r\nghosts.”\r\n\r\n“Well, where you see one of them blue lights flickering around, Tom,\r\nyou can bet there’s a ghost mighty close behind it. It stands to reason.\r\nBecuz you know that they don’t anybody but ghosts use ’em.”\r\n\r\n“Yes, that’s so. But anyway they don’t come around in the daytime, so\r\nwhat’s the use of our being afeard?”\r\n\r\n“Well, all right. We’ll tackle the ha’nted house if you say so—but I\r\nreckon it’s taking chances.”\r\n\r\nThey had started down the hill by this time. There in the middle of the\r\nmoonlit valley below them stood the “ha’nted” house, utterly isolated,\r\nits fences gone long ago, rank weeds smothering the very doorsteps, the\r\nchimney crumbled to ruin, the window-sashes vacant, a corner of the roof\r\ncaved in. The boys gazed awhile, half expecting to see a blue light flit\r\npast a window; then talking in a low tone, as befitted the time and the\r\ncircumstances, they struck far off to the right, to give the haunted\r\nhouse a wide berth, and took their way homeward through the woods that\r\nadorned the rearward side of Cardiff Hill.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"CHAPTER XXV"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG2TP9MA26GMS73H3R2KPN3R","peer_label":"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer","peer_type":"novel","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG2T4RHC4E1XKJ12BJRXE8E8","peer_label":"tom_sawyer.txt","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG2T49K0H5GDRB0G4YDTPG8H","peer_label":"Test Collection","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG2TRB66XTREW9QP1BNF0795","peer_label":"CHAPTER XXIV","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG2TRBJ3N8PQZE3STX3F94JX","peer_label":"CHAPTER XXVI","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"next"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8QNT986J63WC5PE5WGN","peer_label":"CHAPTER XXV","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8RDZ1VNZMRWKF4KXPY4","peer_label":"Digging for Treasure","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8PJ933W1DSYWQA8V655","peer_label":"Changing Digging Spot","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8Q830VHWWA30EWDBSTR","peer_label":"Planning Next Dig","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8QGJ9A32GR4B7AC02KK","peer_label":"Discussing Land Ownership","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8NSQ6JB3XP4M8X8NEEB","peer_label":"Considering Witch Interference","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8RDWNNMQVM37P2DWJJ6","peer_label":"Realizing Time Mistake","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8SCP490RCMZ39ZVCX48","peer_label":"Planning Night Return","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8Q6G5HJRK5FXKSNKYH8","peer_label":"Nighttime Digging","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8QSZ0N88M673H8Y0N7H","peer_label":"Discussing Ghosts and Dead People","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8T93TKEQMCF63TCV2F5","peer_label":"Deciding to Change Location","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8NVER3G90X5ANE66XT3","peer_label":"Choosing the Haunted House","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8RNG1280RNY6B3DFFDM","peer_label":"Debating Haunted House Safety","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"},{"peer":"01KG2TS8P0SXTC839094Y6QKBY","peer_label":"Approaching the Haunted House","peer_type":"scene","predicate":"contains"}],"ver":4,"created_at":"2026-01-28T17:34:55.913Z","ts":"2026-01-28T17:38:39.457Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF5C36SQEVDHC9CBNZZJH9K"}}