Huck becomes rather irrational when he reacts to the footprints. He barely hesitates after spotting it before running for his life to Judge Thatcher's house and attempting to give away his large amount of money. Readers can infer from this reaction that Huck is afraid of his father. We can also begin to acknowledge his father's motivation for returning to the town, which is to take Huck's money for his own, since Huck's first act is to get rid of it. After seeing the footprints, Huck also resorts to supernatural ways to get answers. He goes to Jim and asks what Pap is going to do and if he is going to stay, and Jim listens to his special hair-ball for the answers.
Superstition is a main theme of this novel. Huck and Jim have several superstitions, one which is introduced in the very beginning on page 13. Huck flicks a spider into a candle and kills it, which he believes will bring him bad luck. He tries to fend off the potential misfortunes by taking off his clothes, turning in his tracks three times while crossing his chest, and tying a lock of hair with a thread, to, apparently, keep witches away, since he does not have a horseshoe to nail up. All because of the simple murder of a pesky insect. Jim has superstitions along with his hair-ball. After Huck and Tom Sawyer are nearly caught sneaking out by him, they move his hat and tie him up, and Jim thinks he has been attacked by witches. He wears the five-cent piece that Tom had left, except he says it was given to him by the devil, because he believes he will be able to summon witches and cure everything with it. They all work so hard to prevent things developed in their own imaginations from occurring.
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