(np) HF, the payoff of not being completely d*ckish...

[Albert Rolls]

>I'm not trying to read Jim as a noble savage, .

I didn't think you were; however . . .

>If an Irish-American ("no dogs or Irishmen allowed") such as myself
>were to go outside after hearing a noise at midnight, and if I were
>still worried about possible danger, there's not a snowball's chance
>that I'd really fall asleep against a tree.

. .  . this argument doesn't demonstrate that Jim isn't asleep; it asserts that someone other than Jim wouldn't have fallen asleep. Jim is either asleep or some words in the text make the reader understand that he is awake and deciding to let Huck get away for some fun. It has been a couple of years, but I don't recall anything that made me as a reader believe Jim is awake.