Quote 13
"Say -- what is dead cats good for, Huck?"
"Good for? Cure warts with."
"No! Is that so? I know something that's better."
"I bet you don't. What is it?"
"Why, spunk-water."
"Spunk-water! I wouldn't give a dern for spunk-water." (6.57-61)
Superstitions function as a kind of street smarts, a way for kids, in this case Tom and Huck, to demonstrate their knowledge.
Quote 14
"Say, Hucky -- do you reckon Hoss Williams hears us talking?"
"O' course he does. Least his sperrit does."
Tom, after a pause:
"I wish I'd said Mister Williams. But I never meant any harm. Everybody calls him Hoss."
"A body can't be too partic'lar how they talk 'bout these-yer dead people, Tom." (9.10-14)
Even when their fears are normal or understandable – the whole ghost in the graveyard thing is pretty standard – Tom and Huck take things to a new level; they are very serious about the supernatural.
Quote 15
"I don't want any marks. They always bury it [treasure] under a ha'nted house or on an island, or under a dead tree that's got one limb sticking out. Well, we've tried Jackson's Island a little, and we can try it again some time; and there's the old ha'nted house up the Still-House branch, and there's lots of deadlimb trees -- dead loads of 'em." (25.17)
In St. Petersburg, no superstition or spooky locale is left unaccounted for; the strange thing is, Tom's logic does work. He watches Injun Joe take treasure from the "haunted" house.