The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain

4.5

Part I

(Tom Sawyer and his younger brother Sid went to live in the house of their Aunt Polly when their mother died. Aunt Polly was a kind woman and loved the boys very much.)

“Tom!” cried Aunt Polly.

No answer.

“Tom!”

No answer again.

“Where can that boy be? Tom!”

Aunt Polly thought for a few minutes and then said, “If I catch you, Tom, I’ll...” She did not finish what she wanted to say. She looked under the bed. But... no Tom... only the cat ran out. Aunt Polly went to the open door, looked out into the garden and cried again, “Tom!”

Then she turned quickly, saw Tom and caught him by the arm.

“What? In the cupboard again?”

“No, Aunt Polly.”

“No? Look at your mouth. Look at your hands. What is that on them?”

“I don’t know, Aunt.”

“But I know. It’s jam. I’ve told you so many times: don’t touch that jam in the cupboard. Give me that stick.”

The stick was in Aunt Polly’s hand and ready to fall on Tom’s back when she heard:

“Look behind you, Aunt!”

Aunt Polly turned quickly and looked down. Tom ran into the garden and jumped over the fence.

His aunt stood and looked at the fence for some time and then she laughed.

“What a boy!” she thought. “Why can’t I learn? He has often done that. But I can’t beat him. He is my sister’s boy.”

The next morning Aunt Polly told Tom that he must not go to the river after school. He must come home. But Tom did not go to school that day. He had a good time on the river. At supper Aunt Polly told the boy, “It’s Saturday tomorrow—a holiday. But no holiday for you, my boy. You will work.”

Part II

Saturday. A beautiful warm morning.

“No school. But I must work. I must whitewash the fence,” thought Tom when he came out into the street with a bucket of whitewash and a brush. It was a very long and very high fence.

“How terrible life is,” Tom said and began to work. He worked for some time, then sat down on a box and thought: “The boys will come soon. They will laugh at me when they see that I am working.” He put his hands in his pockets and took out the things he had there— toys, little stones, pieces of glass.

“I have very little to pay the boys if I ask them to help me,” Tom said to himself. He thought a little, then took the brush and began to work again. Soon Ben Rogers came up. He had an apple in his hand. He stopped and looked at Tom. Tom did not stop working. Then Ben said, “Tom! What are you doing?” Tom did not answer but looked at the fence with attention.

“Hello, Tom!” said Ben. “Why are you working today?” Tom turned to Ben.

“Oh, it’s you, Ben! I didn’t see you.”

“I’m going to the river, don’t you want to go too? But you must work, I see.”

“Work? You think this is work?”

“Why, isn’t this work?”

“You may think so. But Tom Sawyer likes it.”

“You say you like it, Tom?”

“Why not? Does a boy whitewash a fence every day?” That showed the thing in a new light. Ben stopped to eat his apple and looked at Tom. Then he said:

“Tom, let me whitewash a little.”

“Oh, no, Ben. Aunt Polly asked me to do it very well. The fence is on the street, you know. There isn’t a boy in a thousand that can do it better than I can.”

“Oh, please, Tom, let me do it. I’ll give you my apple. I can whitewash as well as you can. You’ll see.”

Then Tom gave Ben the brush. Ben began to work and Tom sat down under a tree, ate the apple and thought how to make other boys work for him.

Soon some boys came up. When they saw how well Ben worked, they wanted to whitewash too. Billy Fisher gave Tom a knife. Johnny Miller gave Tom a dead cat. Tom had a good time while the other boys whitewashed the fence.

When the middle of the afternoon came, Tom was very rich and the work was over. He went into the house and thought that life was not so terrible.