Read the excerpt from chapter 23 of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn . "All right, then—not a word about any sell. Go along home, and advise everybody to come and see the tragedy." Based on the excerpt, the townspeople of Arkansas are afraid of being seen as

The “sell” is a trick: the performers swindled the audience by putting on a crude show. The townspeople agree not to reveal that they were fooled and instead tell others to come see it. They are therefore afraid of being seen as gullible, meaning easily tricked.

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