--- /dev/null
+Produced by David Widger. The previous edition was updated by Jose
+Menendez.
+
+
+
+
+
+ THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER
+ BY
+ MARK TWAIN
+ (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
+
+
+
+
+ P R E F A C E
+
+MOST of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or
+two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were
+schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but
+not from an individual--he is a combination of the characteristics of
+three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of
+architecture.
+
+The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children
+and slaves in the West at the period of this story--that is to say,
+thirty or forty years ago.
+
+Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and
+girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account,
+for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what
+they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked,
+and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.
+
+ THE AUTHOR.
+
+HARTFORD, 1876.
+
+
+
+ T O M S A W Y E R
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+"TOM!"
+
+No answer.
+
+"TOM!"
+
+No answer.
+
+"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!"
+
+No answer.
+
+The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the
+room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or
+never looked THROUGH them for so small a thing as a boy; they were her
+state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for "style," not
+service--she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well.
+She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but
+still loud enough for the furniture to hear:
+
+"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll--"
+
+She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching
+under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the
+punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.
+
+"I never did see the beat of that boy!"
+
+She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the
+tomato vines and "jimpson" weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom.
+So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and
+shouted:
+
+"Y-o-u-u TOM!"
+
+There was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to
+seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.
+
+"There! I might 'a' thought of that closet. What you been doing in
+there?"
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What IS that
+truck?"
+
+"I don't know, aunt."
+
+"Well, I know. It's jam--that's what it is. Forty times I've said if
+you didn't let that jam alone I'd skin you. Hand me that switch."
+
+The switch hovered in the air--the peril was desperate--
+
+"My! Look behind you, aunt!"
+
+The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The
+lad fled on the instant, scrambled up the high board-fence, and
+disappeared over it.
+
+His aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then broke into a gentle
+laugh.
+
+"Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't he played me tricks
+enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this time? But old
+fools is the biggest fools there is. Can't learn an old dog new tricks,
+as the saying is. But my goodness, he never plays them alike, two days,
+and how is a body to know what's coming? He 'pears to know just how
+long he can torment me before I get my dander up, and he knows if he
+can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, it's all down
+again and I can't hit him a lick. I ain't doing my duty by that boy,
+and that's the Lord's truth, goodness knows. Spare the rod and spile
+the child, as the Good Book says. I'm a laying up sin and suffering for
+us both, I know. He's full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he's my
+own dead sister's boy, poor thing, and I ain't got the heart to lash
+him, somehow. Every time I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so,
+and every time I hit him my old heart most breaks. Well-a-well, man
+that is born of woman is of few days and full of trouble, as the
+Scripture says, and I reckon it's so. He'll play hookey this evening, *
+and [* Southwestern for "afternoon"] I'll just be obleeged to make him
+work, to-morrow, to punish him. It's mighty hard to make him work
+Saturdays, when all the boys is having holiday, but he hates work more
+than he hates anything else, and I've GOT to do some of my duty by him,
+or I'll be the ruination of the child."
+
+Tom did play hookey, and he had a very good time. He got back home
+barely in season to help Jim, the small colored boy, saw next-day's
+wood and split the kindlings before supper--at least he was there in
+time to tell his adventures to Jim while Jim did three-fourths of the
+work. Tom's younger brother (or rather half-brother) Sid was already
+through with his part of the work (picking up chips), for he was a
+quiet boy, and had no adventurous, troublesome ways.
+
+While Tom was eating his supper, and stealing sugar as opportunity
+offered, Aunt Polly asked him questions that were full of guile, and
+very deep--for she wanted to trap him into damaging revealments. Like
+many other simple-hearted souls, it was her pet vanity to believe she
+was endowed with a talent for dark and mysterious diplomacy, and she
+loved to contemplate her most transparent devices as marvels of low
+cunning. Said she:
+
+"Tom, it was middling warm in school, warn't it?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"Powerful warm, warn't it?"
+
+"Yes'm."
+
+"Didn't you want to go in a-swimming, Tom?"
+
+A bit of a scare shot through Tom--a touch of uncomfortable suspicion.
+He searched Aunt Polly's face, but it told him nothing. So he said:
+
+"No'm--well, not very much."
+
+The old lady reached out her hand and felt Tom's shirt, and said:
+
+"But you ain't too warm now, though." And it flattered her to reflect
+that she had discovered that the shirt was dry without anybody knowing
+that that was what she had in her mind. But in spite of her, Tom knew
+where the wind lay, now. So he forestalled what might be the next move:
+
+"Some of us pumped on our heads--mine's damp yet. See?"
+
+Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that bit of
+circumstantial evidence, and missed a trick. Then she had a new
+inspiration:
+
+"Tom, you didn't have to undo your shirt collar where I sewed it, to
+pump on your head, did you? Unbutton your jacket!"
+
+The trouble vanished out of Tom's face. He opened his jacket. His
+shirt collar was securely sewed.
+
+"Bother! Well, go 'long with you. I'd made sure you'd played hookey
+and been a-swimming. But I forgive ye, Tom. I reckon you're a kind of a
+singed cat, as the saying is--better'n you look. THIS time."
+
+She was half sorry her sagacity had miscarried, and half glad that Tom
+had stumbled into obedient conduct for once.
+
+But Sidney said:
+
+"Well, now, if I didn't think you sewed his collar with white thread,
+but it's black."
+
+"Why, I did sew it with white! Tom!"
+
+But Tom did not wait for the rest. As he went out at the door he said:
+
+"Siddy, I'll lick you for that."
+
+In a safe place Tom examined two large needles which were thrust into
+the lapels of his jacket, and had thread bound about them--one needle
+carried white thread and the other black. He said:
+
+"She'd never noticed if it hadn't been for Sid. Confound it! sometimes
+she sews it with white, and sometimes she sews it with black. I wish to
+geeminy she'd stick to one or t'other--I can't keep the run of 'em. But
+I bet you I'll lam Sid for that. I'll learn him!"
+
+He was not the Model Boy of the village. He knew the model boy very
+well though--and loathed him.
+
+Within two minutes, or even less, he had forgotten all his troubles.
+Not because his troubles were one whit less heavy and bitter to him
+than a man's are to a man, but because a new and powerful interest bore
+them down and drove them out of his mind for the time--just as men's
+misfortunes are forgotten in the excitement of new enterprises. This
+new interest was a valued novelty in whistling, which he had just
+acquired from a negro, and he was suffering to practise it undisturbed.
+It consisted in a peculiar bird-like turn, a sort of liquid warble,
+produced by touching the tongue to the roof of the mouth at short
+intervals in the midst of the music--the reader probably remembers how
+to do it, if he has ever been a boy. Diligence and attention soon gave
+him the knack of it, and he strode down the street with his mouth full
+of harmony and his soul full of gratitude. He felt much as an
+astronomer feels who has discovered a new planet--no doubt, as far as
+strong, deep, unalloyed pleasure is concerned, the advantage was with
+the boy, not the astronomer.
+
+The summer evenings were long. It was not dark, yet. Presently Tom
+checked his whistle. A stranger was before him--a boy a shade larger
+than himself. A new-comer of any age or either sex was an impressive
+curiosity in the poor little shabby village of St. Petersburg. This boy
+was well dressed, too--well dressed on a week-day. This was simply
+astounding. His cap was a dainty thing, his close-buttoned blue cloth
+roundabout was new and natty, and so were his pantaloons. He had shoes
+on--and it was only Friday. He even wore a necktie, a bright bit of
+ribbon. He had a citified air about him that ate into Tom's vitals. The
+more Tom stared at the splendid marvel, the higher he turned up his
+nose at his finery and the shabbier and shabbier his own outfit seemed
+to him to grow. Neither boy spoke. If one moved, the other moved--but
+only sidewise, in a circle; they kept face to face and eye to eye all
+the time. Finally Tom said:
+
+"I can lick you!"
+
+"I'd like to see you try it."
+
+"Well, I can do it."
+
+"No you can't, either."
+
+"Yes I can."
+
+"No you can't."
+
+"I can."
+
+"You can't."
+
+"Can!"
+
+"Can't!"
+
+An uncomfortable pause. Then Tom said:
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"'Tisn't any of your business, maybe."
+
+"Well I 'low I'll MAKE it my business."
+
+"Well why don't you?"
+
+"If you say much, I will."
+
+"Much--much--MUCH. There now."
+
+"Oh, you think you're mighty smart, DON'T you? I could lick you with
+one hand tied behind me, if I wanted to."
+
+"Well why don't you DO it? You SAY you can do it."
+
+"Well I WILL, if you fool with me."
+
+"Oh yes--I've seen whole families in the same fix."
+
+"Smarty! You think you're SOME, now, DON'T you? Oh, what a hat!"
+
+"You can lump that hat if you don't like it. I dare you to knock it
+off--and anybody that'll take a dare will suck eggs."
+
+"You're a liar!"
+
+"You're another."
+
+"You're a fighting liar and dasn't take it up."
+
+"Aw--take a walk!"
+
+"Say--if you give me much more of your sass I'll take and bounce a
+rock off'n your head."
+
+"Oh, of COURSE you will."
+
+"Well I WILL."
+
+"Well why don't you DO it then? What do you keep SAYING you will for?
+Why don't you DO it? It's because you're afraid."
+
+"I AIN'T afraid."
+
+"You are."
+
+"I ain't."
+
+"You are."
+
+Another pause, and more eying and sidling around each other. Presently
+they were shoulder to shoulder. Tom said:
+
+"Get away from here!"
+
+"Go away yourself!"
+
+"I won't."
+
+"I won't either."
+
+So they stood, each with a foot placed at an angle as a brace, and
+both shoving with might and main, and glowering at each other with
+hate. But neither could get an advantage. After struggling till both
+were hot and flushed, each relaxed his strain with watchful caution,
+and Tom said:
+
+"You're a coward and a pup. I'll tell my big brother on you, and he
+can thrash you with his little finger, and I'll make him do it, too."
+
+"What do I care for your big brother? I've got a brother that's bigger
+than he is--and what's more, he can throw him over that fence, too."
+[Both brothers were imaginary.]
+
+"That's a lie."
+
+"YOUR saying so don't make it so."
+
+Tom drew a line in the dust with his big toe, and said:
+
+"I dare you to step over that, and I'll lick you till you can't stand
+up. Anybody that'll take a dare will steal sheep."
+
+The new boy stepped over promptly, and said:
+
+"Now you said you'd do it, now let's see you do it."
+
+"Don't you crowd me now; you better look out."
+
+"Well, you SAID you'd do it--why don't you do it?"
+
+"By jingo! for two cents I WILL do it."
+
+The new boy took two broad coppers out of his pocket and held them out
+with derision. Tom struck them to the ground. In an instant both boys
+were rolling and tumbling in the dirt, gripped together like cats; and
+for the space of a minute they tugged and tore at each other's hair and
+clothes, punched and scratched each other's nose, and covered
+themselves with dust and glory. Presently the confusion took form, and
+through the fog of battle Tom appeared, seated astride the new boy, and
+pounding him with his fists. "Holler 'nuff!" said he.
+
+The boy only struggled to free himself. He was crying--mainly from rage.
+
+"Holler 'nuff!"--and the pounding went on.
+
+At last the stranger got out a smothered "'Nuff!" and Tom let him up
+and said:
+
+"Now that'll learn you. Better look out who you're fooling with next
+time."
+
+The new boy went off brushing the dust from his clothes, sobbing,
+snuffling, and occasionally looking back and shaking his head and
+threatening what he would do to Tom the "next time he caught him out."
+To which Tom responded with jeers, and started off in high feather, and
+as soon as his back was turned the new boy snatched up a stone, threw
+it and hit him between the shoulders and then turned tail and ran like
+an antelope. Tom chased the traitor home, and thus found out where he
+lived. He then held a position at the gate for some time, daring the
+enemy to come outside, but the enemy only made faces at him through the
+window and declined. At last the enemy's mother appeared, and called
+Tom a bad, vicious, vulgar child, and ordered him away. So he went
+away; but he said he "'lowed" to "lay" for that boy.
+
+He got home pretty late that night, and when he climbed cautiously in
+at the window, he uncovered an ambuscade, in the person of his aunt;
+and when she saw the state his clothes were in her resolution to turn
+his Saturday holiday into captivity at hard labor became adamantine in
+its firmness.
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