In Chap­ter 6, the nar­ra­tive begins with a dream­like encounter with a mys­te­ri­ous char­ac­ter named Cuné­gonde, who con­veys a crit­i­cal per­spec­tive on hope and free­dom. The pro­tag­o­nist is in a serene val­ley, reflect­ing on the absence of his fam­i­ly and con­vinced that he will find them. Cuné­gonde chal­lenges his notions, sug­gest­ing that hope is mere­ly an illu­sion and that he is, in fact, a mort­gaged property—owned by the bank like a farm or a house. She empha­sizes that despite the pres­ence of a war that might fore­stall slav­ery, free­dom remains elu­sive.

The dream abrupt­ly shifts to real­i­ty when the pro­tag­o­nist is awak­ened by Katie, who warns him to hide as the over­seer, Hop­kins, approach­es. Katie’s fear is pal­pa­ble as she instructs him to con­ceal him­self behind a bar­rel in the cor­ner. When Hop­kins enters, he fix­ates on Katie, degrad­ing her while mak­ing demands that high­light the oppres­sive and vio­lent con­di­tions of their exis­tence. The scene esca­lates as Hop­kins abus­es Katie, dri­ving the pro­tag­o­nist into a fury, imag­in­ing retal­i­at­ing to save her but refrain­ing due to the severe con­se­quences such actions could pre­cip­i­tate for all enslaved peo­ple.

After Hop­kins leaves, the pro­tag­o­nist emerges from hid­ing, qui­et­ly reflect­ing on their shared plight. Soon, Cot­ton enters the shack, instant­ly sens­ing the ten­sion but not under­stand­ing its cause. The pro­tag­o­nist decides to leave for Jack­son Island, where he knows he can lay low and fish while await­ing news from Huck regard­ing his fam­i­ly. He feels guilt for hav­ing endan­gered Katie and Cot­ton and is deter­mined to pro­tect them from the reper­cus­sions of his pres­ence.

As night falls, he swims across the riv­er and set­tles on the sandy beach to rest, avoid­ing risky tra­vers­es through altered ter­rain. At dawn, he finds a cat­fish, effec­tive­ly sus­tain­ing him­self as he nav­i­gates to locate a cave where he can remain hid­den and wait, with only the weight of his pencil—a sym­bol of his endurance—accompanying him through this pre­car­i­ous time.