Creative post: An excerpt from one of Huck's pirate stories

"Drop the anchor and raise the flag," Captain ordered. "This is where we make our stand."

As the pirate ship drew closer and closer, we prepared to engage in battle to take back the property of the kingdom. The pirates looted and raided our cities, and we had come to take back what was ours.

Despite the superiority of our ship and our manpower, I could not help but have an ominous feeling about heading into naval battle with pirates. After all, we could not expect them to play by the rules. As the ship grew closer, our ship became quieter. Men ceased their mumblings, and went to their assigned stations. Half the men manned cannons, while the others of us took to our guns, looking to take out individual pirates, rather than the entire ship.

"Blow 'er til she sinks," Captain yelled as the ship came into range.

"But sir," second in command Rowley responded, "we came all this way to reclaim our treasures. How shall we do that if the ship, along with all of the gold and prized items, lay at the bottom of the ocean?"

The Captain turned to us all with a grim look on his face. "I would rather see our beloved treasure at the bottom of the ocean than in the hands of pirates. Now fire!"

Every man on the boat turned back to his stations. Cannons blasted and the heat of their fire could be felt throughout the entire ship. Return fire rocked our ship hard and men were thrown across the ship and overboard into the crashing, ice-cold winter waves. I stood steady at my post, aiming and firing with every new pirate that came into sight. Often I met my mark. The look of shock and sorrow in the eyes of the men I hit as they went down made me feel pity for them, and I sent up a prayer for their weary souls.

Cannon fire continued at a steady pace from each side for what seemed like hours. Both sides were struggling to put out fires on their ships, patch up leaks, and keep their ship afloat. What we did have on our side was superior artillery, and much more of it than the pirates had to defend their ship. We could continue at this rate of fire for many more hours, while I suspected that the pirates were coming to the end of their cannon supplies.

Just as I was growing weary from the mundane continuity of the battle, the pirates ship was hit with a cannon that set fire to the ship. The deck lit up in bright oranges and yellows and the flames licked their way up the post in the middle of the ship and burnt the pirates flag to ashes. There were cries from both sides; those of victory and those of shock and anguish. While my shipmates rejoiced, I stood and watched the pirate ship sink into the frozen waters, marveling at the life that was there one minute and gone the next, before I turned to the festivities.

THE END

Purpose of Prayer

In the story, one of the women(I believe it was Miss Watson but I am not entirely positive) tells Huckleberry that if he prays to God, he'll get whatever he asks for. Huck begins to pray to God asking for a fishing hook, and when God doesn't answer his prayers, he gets frustrated and angry. Eventually he gives up praying altogether. If the she had accurately presented prayer to Huck, he could have had a much better experience. When I read the woman telling Huck that he would get whatever he asked for when he prayed, I had this moment where I was like "I wish." If that really happened, there would be a lot more Christians in the world, I think. But prayer is supposed to be a way for us to communicate with God and foster our relationship with Him, not just ask Him to give us stuff, whether it be a promotion, a good grade on our test, or something more serious like for someone to be cured from cancer. While I wish that was how prayer worked, I've had it explained to me that when we pray, God will give us one of three answers: Yes, no or not right now. I feel like ninety percent of the time I either get a no or a not right now, but I have to remember that God has His reasons and His plan and that in the end it will all work out ten times better than it would have if I had gotten everything that I wanted. There was a reason that Huck didn't get that fishing hook. I don't know what it was, but if the widow would have explained that to him, his prayer experience could have been greatly improved, and if we look at prayer the right way, it will be a better experience for us, too.

Dialects

While I think that the use of Huck's unique dialects does add some flavor to the story, it more often than not just makes the story more difficult to read. I for one have more difficulty reading the story because the dialect is distracting and sometimes actually manages to take away from the story. Some wording and phrases are almost too colorful, and often in my head I almost have to translate what Huck is saying into something that I can actually understand. So while I understand why Twain uses the dialect, for color and uniqueness, I think that it would make it easier for the readers if we used regular language instead of the country, for lack of a better word, hick dialect of Huck.