Tom was tired of everything. Becky was ill and would not look at him, and Aunt Polly had punished him for something Sid had done. He met Joe Harper, who had been whipped for cream he had never tasted, and Huck, who was always ready. At midnight the three of them took a raft and floated down to Jackson's Island, three miles below the town. They made a fire, fried bacon and lay on the sand in the dark. They were pirates now. For two days they swam and hunted turtle eggs and smoked pipes and did not wash. But on the second night Tom heard something far away over the water. A little steam ferry was moving slowly, and there were people on her deck, and a cannon was firing over the river to bring up drowned bodies.