The Ransom of Red Chief

"I jumped up to see what the mater was. Red Chief was sitting on Bill's chest, with one hand twined in Bill's hair. In the other he had the sharp case-knife we used for slicing bacon; and he was industriously and realistically trying to take Bill's scalp, according to the sentence that had been pronounced upon him the evening before."


I thought this part of the short story was hilarious because there are the two kidnappers, and then this cute little boy, who turns out to be more trouble than he's worth. They think that by kidnapping him, they'll get a lot of ransom money, but the whole time they have him, they both have to watch their backs because the boy Johnny thinks he's a Indian. When Bill wakes up with Johnny on top of him trying to take his scalp, is when Sam realizes that they made a mistake in kidnapping someone so young and adventurous. Their plan blows up in their faces, and they are so paranoid that they return the boy for cheap ransom. To me this is just so funny, because I can see this happening in my mind, and the show is quite amusing.