Most everybody was on that boat (pg.38)

" By and by she come along, and she drifted in so close that they could a run out a plank and walked ashore. Most everybody was on the boat. Pap, and Judge Thatcher, and Bessie Thatcher, and Jo Harper, and Tom Sawyer, and his old Aunt Polly, and Sid and Mary, and plenty more."

In the story when Huck is gone due to his father taking him into his own home, not too many people are generally as concerned. However, when everyone finds out that he died, they all set out and look for him in concern. They generally don't know what their missing until its actually gone, and thats what Twain points out. That the public doesn't appreciate and have too much concern for someone until they are actually gone. This can be seen in American society today with the youth and their parents. Much of the youth do not treat their parents with much respect and concern. But once they are actually gone or dead, the true value and meaning of their parents surfaces. In the hit show Grey's Anatomy, Meredith loses her mom, but before so she almost hates her mom. After the death of her mom she truely shows how much she loved her.