E.E. Burke's Best of the West: An old friend...a new adventure

His greatest adventure is about to catch up with him.

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Steamboat pilot Huck Finn, who loves his freedom, steers clear of messy entanglements that might tie him down—until he takes charge of an orphaned boy that needs rescuing.

Miss Hallie MacBride conceals a painful past behind her starched propriety and a pair of gold-rimmed spectacles. Propelled out of self-imposed isolation, she sets out to atone for past sins by raising her estranged sister’s son. She doesn’t expect footloose Mr. Finn to challenge her, much less up and run off with her nephew.  

On a wild journey fraught with danger, a freedom-loving adventurer and an avowed spinster battle over the destiny of a young boy, who is doing his level best to convince them they belong together.

Embark on an unforgettable adventure from award-winning author E.E. Burke in a novel inspired by one of America’s most beloved characters.

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Today marks the release of TAMING HUCK FINN. In this historical novel inspired by Mark Twain's iconic adventurer, you'll meet Huck fifteen years after he fled civilization and "set out for the Territory."

You'll certainly recognize freedom-loving Huck, who now works as a part-time steamboat pilot on the Missouri River when he's not off searching for gold. But his footloose lifestyle is about to change when he becomes the sole guardian of an orphaned boy, and defies the child's spinster aunt.

Neither Huck nor Hallie make a good first impression, yet they discover some surprising things they have in common as they grapple with each other over Tad's future--and deal with his precocious antics! 

Check out this excerpt...

Huck smiled down at his charge. “Reckon I can take you on one adventure if you’ll agree to go with the family I pick out for you.”

Tad’s lip curled out. “You said I don’t got to go with nobody I don’t want to.” 

“I promise you’ll like the folks I got in mind, and I’ll tell you who it is soon as I work things out.” Huck patted the boy’s shoulder. Might take a little wrangling, but hadn’t he helped Jim escape a life of bondage? How could he do less for his own nephew?

Tad chewed his lip. The inner struggle played itself out in his eyes. At last, he gave a sigh, a reluctant nod. “All right.”

“Good.” Huck started to offer his hand, then hesitated. A simple handshake might not carry enough weight to prevent Tad from changing his mind later. “Let’s swear to it like me and Tom did when we were kids.” He didn’t much like the idea of cutting the child’s finger for a blood oath, so he spit on his palm instead. Tad did the same and they shook. 

The boy’s dark eyes sparkled with delight. “Are we gonna ride this raft?” 

“How ‘bout a steamboat?” That would make the trip back home faster if they could find one headed in the right direction.

Tad appeared to be tempted by the idea. “Maybe later. Right now, I want to ride a raft.” 

“T’aint a raft, Tad. It’s a flatboat.” 

“But we can pretend it’s a raft.” 

The hopeful appeal struck a chord deep inside Huck. It had been a long time since he’d lived so free and easy as he had those days he’d spent floating down a wide, smooth river with a friend. A quiet whisper said it weren’t a good idea, but a louder voice—the one he most often heeded—insisted this might work to his advantage. 

If he took Tad on a brief adventure using this boat, it meant he didn’t have to deal with that tiresome woman. She might follow them onto a steamboat, but she’d never get on a flatboat. He’d just go find Dubois, explain what they were doing, and ask him to work things out for Tom Sawyer to adopt the boy. Then he’d slide off a little ways downriver, board a steamer, and have Tad settled in with his new family before Miss MacBride realized what was happening. With a little luck, he could make his way back to Atchison by late summer, in plenty of time to reach the upper river before water levels dropped too low to navigate. 

He lowered his voice to conspiring level. “Look here, this is what we’ll do. I know the old trapper that owns this flatboat. He won’t be needing it, so we’ll just borrow it for a spell.”

Tad leaped up and threw his arms around Huck’s neck. “Thank you, thank you, thank you. You’re the best uncle in the whole world, and I won’t never forget it ‘til I rot.”

Touched by the child’s gratitude, Huck patted Tad’s back. He was beginning not to mind the hugs so much. “Let me fetch some trifles and talk to Mr. Dubois, so he won’t be in a sweat over what happened to you.” 

Huck crawled out of the tent. The sight and sound of the rushing river sent excitement thrumming through his veins. He’d made the right decision, felt it clear to his bones. He’d give his nephew a taste of freedom before Tad had to go back to being at least partway respectable. Every boy deserved time on a river. 

“Mr. Finn, what are you doing there?” 

Huck jerked his head up in alarm. That voice could belong to only one person, and here she came, flying down to the landing. It flashed through his mind that Miss MacBride didn’t remind him so much of a crow as a chicken hawk sighting its prey. 

Her determined steps kicked her skirts out behind her, and inky strands of hair whipped across her face as she drew closer to where the flatboat was docked. “Get off that boat this instant,” she commanded, using a tone that would have done a riverboat pilot proud.

Huck stiffened before he realized she was talking to Tad, who’d crawled out behind him. They’d just have to find another way to get shy of her. He got to his feet. “Hold on, now, Miss MacBride. We were just coming back to tell you—” 

The boat lurched, pitching Huck to the floor. What the…? He looked around and his heart nearly stopped. Tad had untied the ropes holding the boat to the posts and was now trying to man the massive oar and steer them into the channel. 

With a curse, Huckdashed to the stern, snatching the boy off the steersman’s box before Tad lost his balance and toppled into the rushing water. 

“Sit,” he ordered. 

Tad flopped down just as the current snatched the light boat and carried it away from the wharf. 

“Mr. Finn! Stop!” 

Throwing her the ropes was useless. The momentum would drag her into the water. Huck gripped the tiller and lowered the oar. 

“You must stop!” Her voice pitched up another octave.

Huck spared the woman barely a glance as he fought to right the boat so it wouldn’t spin out of control or strike debris carried along by the swift current. With the river running this fiercely, he’d never be able to pole to shore. He’d have to take them downriver a few miles and find a safer spot to land. Their adventure would be starting slightly ahead of schedule.

After gaining control of the boat, he looked back at the wharf. 

The confounded woman had hauled up her skirts and was running along the dock. Couldn’t she see the boat was too far away for her to catch up? 

“Stay back,” he yelled. “I’ll take care of him.”

Tad danced from one foot to the other and waved his hands. “Hey, Aunt Hallie! Guess what? We’re goin’ a-raftin’!”

Her startled expression changed to one of horror. 

She’d reached the end of the pier. 
The blamed fool woman had to stop. 

But it was Huck’s heart that halted when she flung herself into the air. 

Her black dress flapped like wings as she took flight for less than a second before dropping like a stone into the river.

Read the book
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Exploring Huck's tentative and sometimes awkward initiation into parenthood and Hallie's fierce yearning to nurture a child is, in part, based on what I've learned from having three children of my own. 

If only they came with a handbook!

How Huck and Hallie learn to trust one another and resolve their own shortcomings is something I think we can all relate to.

Same Huck...different river.

As in Twain's original book, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, the river is one of the characters you'll encounter. Only in this case, it's the Missouri River. At the time this book is set, the Missouri formed a natural boundary between a young nation and the wild frontier.

The sprawling, unpredictable Missouri River provides the perfect setting for a story about a restless man who tries to stay one step ahead of civilization yet yearns for the sense of belonging that comes from being part of a family.

Did you know? The Missouri River is the longest river in North America, and one of the longest in the world (even though its lower section where it joins another mighty river is deemed part of "the Mississippi"). 

Along the Upper Missouri, you can still experience the wildest, loneliest, and most historically significant stretches of open space in the lower 48 states.

The Mighty Missouri wasn't "tamed" until after the turn of the 20th century. It took the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers years to dredge the everchanging river and give it a "permanent" channel. Before that, it went wherever it wanted to go from season to season, which made it notoriously difficult to navigate.

THE BENTON
Painting by Gary R. Lucy 

Over the last half of the 19th century, the era of the steamboat gave way to the railroads--which moved people and goods faster and more cheaply. 

Huck sees himself, the old boats and even the river, as relics of a fading past. He’s trying to figure out how he fits into a new world that is rapidly catching up with him. 

Does he keep running? 
Or does he risk his freedom for the one thing that’s eluded him all these years? 

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Tad is constantly scheming to match up Huck and Hallie -- even going so far as to lock them in a room together!

Do you have a funny story about a precocious child -- yours or someone else's? I've love to hear about it.


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