The Mostly True Adventures of Homer P. Figg

Homer remembers telling fantastic lies about his family to Parson Reed of the Pine Swamp First Congregational Church, and that the parson politely went along with it. Harold doesn’t like Homer doing this, but now that he wants to rescue his big brother, Homer believes lying will be a useful and valid tool.

As dawn comes up around the lean-to, Smelt cuts open the sack over the prisoner’s head, revealing a Black man, scared but defiant. Smelt calls him “Festus.” The Black man declares, “My name is Samuel Reed and I am a free man, born to a free woman in the state of Rhode Island!” (32). Smelt and Stink ridicule him and threaten to slit his throat if he doesn’t reveal the location of a nearby group of runaway enslaved people. Samuel Reed replies that they have been freed by President Lincoln.

Stink and Smelt want to capture the runaways and take them to Maryland, a border state where the Emancipation Proclamation doesn’t apply, and collect $10 for every Black person returned. They’re about to kill Reed when Homer points out that they can’t sell the man if he’s dead. The bounty hunters realize he’s right, so instead they commandeer Homer to help them find the runaways. They believe the former enslaved people are hiding at the home of Jebediah Brewster, a wealthy gemstone and metals trader who helps send runaways to Canada.

Smelt puts a rope leash on Homer’s neck and warns him that, if he tries to run, Smelt will plunge a knife into his back; to prove it, he throws his large knife deep into a tree trunk. They hike through the forest to a trail, which they follow to a meadow overlooked by a large and stately house. Smelt tells Homer to knock on the door and tell them the truth about his search for Harold and how his horse got stolen and how he’s hungry. Once inside, Homer must listen to the kitchen help as they gossip. Later, Homer will excuse himself to go outside to the privy, where Smelt will be waiting for a report. Smelt warns Homer not to get any cute ideas: “If you don’t come to old Smelt, old Smelt will come to you” (37). 

Homer walks across the grass toward the house; partway there, he faints from hunger. He awakens as he’s being carried into the house, where the plump and gray-haired cook, Mrs. Bean, gives him a cup of turkey broth. Somewhat revived, Homer tells his story, adding a few tears for good measure. Then he overdoes it and starts telling yarns about his missing rattlesnake boots and how “Prince” Bob is a thoroughbred horse.

Mrs. Bean nods cagily. She asks where Homer’s from, and he makes up a town to the north that he names “Smelt”: “Nothing like the prospect of pancakes to make me smart-mouthed and sassy” (42). He wanders through the kitchen, amazed at all the countertops and cabinets and drawers filled with utensils and foodstuffs. Mrs. Bean sits him down to a large plate of pancakes slathered in butter and syrup, and Homer thinks he’s died and gone to Heaven, except there are no angels or harps. Wondering where God must be, Homer looks up to see a man dressed in black entering the kitchen: “God Himself” (43). 

Jebediah Brewster—blue eyed, long white beard flowing over his black clothes—asks Homer in a booming voice, “What be thy name, son?” (44) Homer realizes he’s a Quaker. Mr. Brewster sits at the table; Mrs. Bean brings him a glass of spring water, which he gulps down. He tells Homer he chose this spot for his home because of the excellent water. In digging out the spring, he discovered gemstones and made his fortune.

Mr. Brewster decides that, whether Homer is an innocent or a spy, it’s God’s work, and he welcomes the boy. He takes him outside and up the hill to the mines, where rainbow-colored tourmaline stones are dug up and sold for costume jewelry. Mr. Brewster credits, not gemstones, but God and Frederick Douglass for his spiritual awakening.

They walk along a trail to an open-pit mine, where shacks stand idle. Mr. Brewster explains that the mine ceased operations at the outset of the Civil War, but that he keeps up the fiction that he’s selling metals to the Union forces. He then tells Homer that he knows Stink and Smelt, who haunt the district, and that Homer has given away his connection to them by naming his home town Smelt. 

Homer thinks Mr. Brewster can read minds, but the big Quaker confides that he’s aware of Smelt in the distance, spying on them. Smelt and Stink are holding Samuel Reed, a “conductor” on the Underground Railroad, a system that smuggles escaped enslaved people north to freedom, stopping for rest at “stations” that might be anything from a root cellar to a house—or a mine.

Mr. Brewster asks Homer to tell him the truth about his relationship to Stink and Smelt; Homer decides that “lying to Jebediah Brewster is like lying to God” (52), and he tells the whole truth. Mr. Brewster says he and Homer will behave as if they aren’t aware of Smelt nearby, and that Homer will report to the bounty hunter as scheduled and tell him “the truth.”

Mr. Brewster explains that the Quakers, or Society of Friends, condemns slavery and abhors killing, even in war. He takes Homer to the basement door, opens it, and from below comes a murmur of people “that sounds like a deep river. A deep river that cries like a baby” (54). 

Twenty people, including two babies, huddle in the basement, scared of every noise, especially now that Samuel Reed has disappeared. The basement contains bunks and food for runaways who spend the night on the way to Canada. Mr. Brewster would host them upstairs, but outsiders will burn down the house if he does so. Even abolitionists don’t want to associate with Black people.

Homer remembers how Squint would lock him up at night, and how he sold off Harold like an enslaved person, and Homer wants to help. He suggests that Mr. Brewster get a gun, but that would violate the man’s spiritual vows. Mr. Brewster tells Homer that, in life, a person can either do nothing or do something. In this instance, doing something either involves helping Smelt or helping the runaways. Homer runs out of the house and into the night, not knowing what he will do to help, but he knows it will be something. 

Homer finds the privy, which is fancy and well cared-for, but Smelt grabs him and pulls him behind the building. He demands to know where the runaways are hidden; Homer blurts out that they’re in a hole beneath a shack at the tourmaline mine. Smelt binds and gags Homer and they head for the woods, where they meet Stink, who knocks Homer down and kicks him for no reason.

They head toward the mine in the dark. Smelt senses something nearby; he hears pebbles tumbling down the hillside. Stink ridicules him for being scared. They get to the shack, and Stink pulls out a knife, saying, “The slaves are here or they ain’t. Either way, Homer Figg has outlived his usefulness” (66). Suddenly Samuel Reed appears out of the darkness and swings a long iron rod like a bat, striking Stink in the head. 

Stink drops to the ground, out cold. Smelt pulls out his knife and crouches, yelling at Samuel that he’s Smelt’s lawful prisoner. Reed swings the bar and knocks the knife from Smelt’s hand; Smelt turns to retrieve the knife but Samuel swings again, knocking him flat, then swings a third time and knocks Smelt out.

No longer believing he’s doomed, Reed feels aghast at what he’s done. They tie up Stink and Smelt and walk back to the house, Homer holding up the exhausted Reed, who explains that, after Homer told Mr. Brewster about his kidnapping, Brewster rescued him from the lean-to in the woods. He thanks Homer for saving his life back at the lean-to; Homer thanks him back for saving him just now.

As they arrive at the house, the runaways are climbing into two horse-drawn wagons waiting in the driveway. The people see Reed and, overjoyed, lift him up and carry him to the wagons. He climbs into the first wagon, shakes Mr. Brewster’s hand, takes the reins, and leads the group off into the night. Mrs. Bean sweeps Homer up in her arms and plants kisses on him: “Never thought a boy could be good and a liar, too. But you are” (71).