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diff --git a/7197.txt b/7197.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..33a2eae --- /dev/null +++ b/7197.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1396 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 5. +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 5. + +Author: Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +Release Date: June 30, 2004 [EBook #7197] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SAWYER *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + + THE ADVENTURES OF TOM SAWYER + BY + MARK TWAIN + (Samuel Langhorne Clemens) + + Part 5 + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THAT was Tom's great secret--the scheme to return home with his +brother pirates and attend their own funerals. They had paddled over to +the Missouri shore on a log, at dusk on Saturday, landing five or six +miles below the village; they had slept in the woods at the edge of the +town till nearly daylight, and had then crept through back lanes and +alleys and finished their sleep in the gallery of the church among a +chaos of invalided benches. + +At breakfast, Monday morning, Aunt Polly and Mary were very loving to +Tom, and very attentive to his wants. There was an unusual amount of +talk. In the course of it Aunt Polly said: + +"Well, I don't say it wasn't a fine joke, Tom, to keep everybody +suffering 'most a week so you boys had a good time, but it is a pity +you could be so hard-hearted as to let me suffer so. If you could come +over on a log to go to your funeral, you could have come over and give +me a hint some way that you warn't dead, but only run off." + +"Yes, you could have done that, Tom," said Mary; "and I believe you +would if you had thought of it." + +"Would you, Tom?" said Aunt Polly, her face lighting wistfully. "Say, +now, would you, if you'd thought of it?" + +"I--well, I don't know. 'Twould 'a' spoiled everything." + +"Tom, I hoped you loved me that much," said Aunt Polly, with a grieved +tone that discomforted the boy. "It would have been something if you'd +cared enough to THINK of it, even if you didn't DO it." + +"Now, auntie, that ain't any harm," pleaded Mary; "it's only Tom's +giddy way--he is always in such a rush that he never thinks of +anything." + +"More's the pity. Sid would have thought. And Sid would have come and +DONE it, too. Tom, you'll look back, some day, when it's too late, and +wish you'd cared a little more for me when it would have cost you so +little." + +"Now, auntie, you know I do care for you," said Tom. + +"I'd know it better if you acted more like it." + +"I wish now I'd thought," said Tom, with a repentant tone; "but I +dreamt about you, anyway. That's something, ain't it?" + +"It ain't much--a cat does that much--but it's better than nothing. +What did you dream?" + +"Why, Wednesday night I dreamt that you was sitting over there by the +bed, and Sid was sitting by the woodbox, and Mary next to him." + +"Well, so we did. So we always do. I'm glad your dreams could take +even that much trouble about us." + +"And I dreamt that Joe Harper's mother was here." + +"Why, she was here! Did you dream any more?" + +"Oh, lots. But it's so dim, now." + +"Well, try to recollect--can't you?" + +"Somehow it seems to me that the wind--the wind blowed the--the--" + +"Try harder, Tom! The wind did blow something. Come!" + +Tom pressed his fingers on his forehead an anxious minute, and then +said: + +"I've got it now! I've got it now! It blowed the candle!" + +"Mercy on us! Go on, Tom--go on!" + +"And it seems to me that you said, 'Why, I believe that that door--'" + +"Go ON, Tom!" + +"Just let me study a moment--just a moment. Oh, yes--you said you +believed the door was open." + +"As I'm sitting here, I did! Didn't I, Mary! Go on!" + +"And then--and then--well I won't be certain, but it seems like as if +you made Sid go and--and--" + +"Well? Well? What did I make him do, Tom? What did I make him do?" + +"You made him--you--Oh, you made him shut it." + +"Well, for the land's sake! I never heard the beat of that in all my +days! Don't tell ME there ain't anything in dreams, any more. Sereny +Harper shall know of this before I'm an hour older. I'd like to see her +get around THIS with her rubbage 'bout superstition. Go on, Tom!" + +"Oh, it's all getting just as bright as day, now. Next you said I +warn't BAD, only mischeevous and harum-scarum, and not any more +responsible than--than--I think it was a colt, or something." + +"And so it was! Well, goodness gracious! Go on, Tom!" + +"And then you began to cry." + +"So I did. So I did. Not the first time, neither. And then--" + +"Then Mrs. Harper she began to cry, and said Joe was just the same, +and she wished she hadn't whipped him for taking cream when she'd +throwed it out her own self--" + +"Tom! The sperrit was upon you! You was a prophesying--that's what you +was doing! Land alive, go on, Tom!" + +"Then Sid he said--he said--" + +"I don't think I said anything," said Sid. + +"Yes you did, Sid," said Mary. + +"Shut your heads and let Tom go on! What did he say, Tom?" + +"He said--I THINK he said he hoped I was better off where I was gone +to, but if I'd been better sometimes--" + +"THERE, d'you hear that! It was his very words!" + +"And you shut him up sharp." + +"I lay I did! There must 'a' been an angel there. There WAS an angel +there, somewheres!" + +"And Mrs. Harper told about Joe scaring her with a firecracker, and +you told about Peter and the Painkiller--" + +"Just as true as I live!" + +"And then there was a whole lot of talk 'bout dragging the river for +us, and 'bout having the funeral Sunday, and then you and old Miss +Harper hugged and cried, and she went." + +"It happened just so! It happened just so, as sure as I'm a-sitting in +these very tracks. Tom, you couldn't told it more like if you'd 'a' +seen it! And then what? Go on, Tom!" + +"Then I thought you prayed for me--and I could see you and hear every +word you said. And you went to bed, and I was so sorry that I took and +wrote on a piece of sycamore bark, 'We ain't dead--we are only off +being pirates,' and put it on the table by the candle; and then you +looked so good, laying there asleep, that I thought I went and leaned +over and kissed you on the lips." + +"Did you, Tom, DID you! I just forgive you everything for that!" And +she seized the boy in a crushing embrace that made him feel like the +guiltiest of villains. + +"It was very kind, even though it was only a--dream," Sid soliloquized +just audibly. + +"Shut up, Sid! A body does just the same in a dream as he'd do if he +was awake. Here's a big Milum apple I've been saving for you, Tom, if +you was ever found again--now go 'long to school. I'm thankful to the +good God and Father of us all I've got you back, that's long-suffering +and merciful to them that believe on Him and keep His word, though +goodness knows I'm unworthy of it, but if only the worthy ones got His +blessings and had His hand to help them over the rough places, there's +few enough would smile here or ever enter into His rest when the long +night comes. Go 'long Sid, Mary, Tom--take yourselves off--you've +hendered me long enough." + +The children left for school, and the old lady to call on Mrs. Harper +and vanquish her realism with Tom's marvellous dream. Sid had better +judgment than to utter the thought that was in his mind as he left the +house. It was this: "Pretty thin--as long a dream as that, without any +mistakes in it!" + +What a hero Tom was become, now! He did not go skipping and prancing, +but moved with a dignified swagger as became a pirate who felt that the +public eye was on him. And indeed it was; he tried not to seem to see +the looks or hear the remarks as he passed along, but they were food +and drink to him. Smaller boys than himself flocked at his heels, as +proud to be seen with him, and tolerated by him, as if he had been the +drummer at the head of a procession or the elephant leading a menagerie +into town. Boys of his own size pretended not to know he had been away +at all; but they were consuming with envy, nevertheless. They would +have given anything to have that swarthy suntanned skin of his, and his +glittering notoriety; and Tom would not have parted with either for a +circus. + +At school the children made so much of him and of Joe, and delivered +such eloquent admiration from their eyes, that the two heroes were not +long in becoming insufferably "stuck-up." They began to tell their +adventures to hungry listeners--but they only began; it was not a thing +likely to have an end, with imaginations like theirs to furnish +material. And finally, when they got out their pipes and went serenely +puffing around, the very summit of glory was reached. + +Tom decided that he could be independent of Becky Thatcher now. Glory +was sufficient. He would live for glory. Now that he was distinguished, +maybe she would be wanting to "make up." Well, let her--she should see +that he could be as indifferent as some other people. Presently she +arrived. Tom pretended not to see her. He moved away and joined a group +of boys and girls and began to talk. Soon he observed that she was +tripping gayly back and forth with flushed face and dancing eyes, +pretending to be busy chasing schoolmates, and screaming with laughter +when she made a capture; but he noticed that she always made her +captures in his vicinity, and that she seemed to cast a conscious eye +in his direction at such times, too. It gratified all the vicious +vanity that was in him; and so, instead of winning him, it only "set +him up" the more and made him the more diligent to avoid betraying that +he knew she was about. Presently she gave over skylarking, and moved +irresolutely about, sighing once or twice and glancing furtively and +wistfully toward Tom. Then she observed that now Tom was talking more +particularly to Amy Lawrence than to any one else. She felt a sharp +pang and grew disturbed and uneasy at once. She tried to go away, but +her feet were treacherous, and carried her to the group instead. She +said to a girl almost at Tom's elbow--with sham vivacity: + +"Why, Mary Austin! you bad girl, why didn't you come to Sunday-school?" + +"I did come--didn't you see me?" + +"Why, no! Did you? Where did you sit?" + +"I was in Miss Peters' class, where I always go. I saw YOU." + +"Did you? Why, it's funny I didn't see you. I wanted to tell you about +the picnic." + +"Oh, that's jolly. Who's going to give it?" + +"My ma's going to let me have one." + +"Oh, goody; I hope she'll let ME come." + +"Well, she will. The picnic's for me. She'll let anybody come that I +want, and I want you." + +"That's ever so nice. When is it going to be?" + +"By and by. Maybe about vacation." + +"Oh, won't it be fun! You going to have all the girls and boys?" + +"Yes, every one that's friends to me--or wants to be"; and she glanced +ever so furtively at Tom, but he talked right along to Amy Lawrence +about the terrible storm on the island, and how the lightning tore the +great sycamore tree "all to flinders" while he was "standing within +three feet of it." + +"Oh, may I come?" said Grace Miller. + +"Yes." + +"And me?" said Sally Rogers. + +"Yes." + +"And me, too?" said Susy Harper. "And Joe?" + +"Yes." + +And so on, with clapping of joyful hands till all the group had begged +for invitations but Tom and Amy. Then Tom turned coolly away, still +talking, and took Amy with him. Becky's lips trembled and the tears +came to her eyes; she hid these signs with a forced gayety and went on +chattering, but the life had gone out of the picnic, now, and out of +everything else; she got away as soon as she could and hid herself and +had what her sex call "a good cry." Then she sat moody, with wounded +pride, till the bell rang. She roused up, now, with a vindictive cast +in her eye, and gave her plaited tails a shake and said she knew what +SHE'D do. + +At recess Tom continued his flirtation with Amy with jubilant +self-satisfaction. And he kept drifting about to find Becky and lacerate +her with the performance. At last he spied her, but there was a sudden +falling of his mercury. She was sitting cosily on a little bench behind +the schoolhouse looking at a picture-book with Alfred Temple--and so +absorbed were they, and their heads so close together over the book, +that they did not seem to be conscious of anything in the world besides. +Jealousy ran red-hot through Tom's veins. He began to hate himself for +throwing away the chance Becky had offered for a reconciliation. He +called himself a fool, and all the hard names he could think of. He +wanted to cry with vexation. Amy chatted happily along, as they walked, +for her heart was singing, but Tom's tongue had lost its function. He +did not hear what Amy was saying, and whenever she paused expectantly he +could only stammer an awkward assent, which was as often misplaced as +otherwise. He kept drifting to the rear of the schoolhouse, again and +again, to sear his eyeballs with the hateful spectacle there. He could +not help it. And it maddened him to see, as he thought he saw, that +Becky Thatcher never once suspected that he was even in the land of the +living. But she did see, nevertheless; and she knew she was winning her +fight, too, and was glad to see him suffer as she had suffered. + +Amy's happy prattle became intolerable. Tom hinted at things he had to +attend to; things that must be done; and time was fleeting. But in +vain--the girl chirped on. Tom thought, "Oh, hang her, ain't I ever +going to get rid of her?" At last he must be attending to those +things--and she said artlessly that she would be "around" when school +let out. And he hastened away, hating her for it. + +"Any other boy!" Tom thought, grating his teeth. "Any boy in the whole +town but that Saint Louis smarty that thinks he dresses so fine and is +aristocracy! Oh, all right, I licked you the first day you ever saw +this town, mister, and I'll lick you again! You just wait till I catch +you out! I'll just take and--" + +And he went through the motions of thrashing an imaginary boy +--pummelling the air, and kicking and gouging. "Oh, you do, do you? You +holler 'nough, do you? Now, then, let that learn you!" And so the +imaginary flogging was finished to his satisfaction. + +Tom fled home at noon. His conscience could not endure any more of +Amy's grateful happiness, and his jealousy could bear no more of the +other distress. Becky resumed her picture inspections with Alfred, but +as the minutes dragged along and no Tom came to suffer, her triumph +began to cloud and she lost interest; gravity and absent-mindedness +followed, and then melancholy; two or three times she pricked up her +ear at a footstep, but it was a false hope; no Tom came. At last she +grew entirely miserable and wished she hadn't carried it so far. When +poor Alfred, seeing that he was losing her, he did not know how, kept +exclaiming: "Oh, here's a jolly one! look at this!" she lost patience +at last, and said, "Oh, don't bother me! I don't care for them!" and +burst into tears, and got up and walked away. + +Alfred dropped alongside and was going to try to comfort her, but she +said: + +"Go away and leave me alone, can't you! I hate you!" + +So the boy halted, wondering what he could have done--for she had said +she would look at pictures all through the nooning--and she walked on, +crying. Then Alfred went musing into the deserted schoolhouse. He was +humiliated and angry. He easily guessed his way to the truth--the girl +had simply made a convenience of him to vent her spite upon Tom Sawyer. +He was far from hating Tom the less when this thought occurred to him. +He wished there was some way to get that boy into trouble without much +risk to himself. Tom's spelling-book fell under his eye. Here was his +opportunity. He gratefully opened to the lesson for the afternoon and +poured ink upon the page. + +Becky, glancing in at a window behind him at the moment, saw the act, +and moved on, without discovering herself. She started homeward, now, +intending to find Tom and tell him; Tom would be thankful and their +troubles would be healed. Before she was half way home, however, she +had changed her mind. The thought of Tom's treatment of her when she +was talking about her picnic came scorching back and filled her with +shame. She resolved to let him get whipped on the damaged +spelling-book's account, and to hate him forever, into the bargain. + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +TOM arrived at home in a dreary mood, and the first thing his aunt +said to him showed him that he had brought his sorrows to an +unpromising market: + +"Tom, I've a notion to skin you alive!" + +"Auntie, what have I done?" + +"Well, you've done enough. Here I go over to Sereny Harper, like an +old softy, expecting I'm going to make her believe all that rubbage +about that dream, when lo and behold you she'd found out from Joe that +you was over here and heard all the talk we had that night. Tom, I +don't know what is to become of a boy that will act like that. It makes +me feel so bad to think you could let me go to Sereny Harper and make +such a fool of myself and never say a word." + +This was a new aspect of the thing. His smartness of the morning had +seemed to Tom a good joke before, and very ingenious. It merely looked +mean and shabby now. He hung his head and could not think of anything +to say for a moment. Then he said: + +"Auntie, I wish I hadn't done it--but I didn't think." + +"Oh, child, you never think. You never think of anything but your own +selfishness. You could think to come all the way over here from +Jackson's Island in the night to laugh at our troubles, and you could +think to fool me with a lie about a dream; but you couldn't ever think +to pity us and save us from sorrow." + +"Auntie, I know now it was mean, but I didn't mean to be mean. I +didn't, honest. And besides, I didn't come over here to laugh at you +that night." + +"What did you come for, then?" + +"It was to tell you not to be uneasy about us, because we hadn't got +drownded." + +"Tom, Tom, I would be the thankfullest soul in this world if I could +believe you ever had as good a thought as that, but you know you never +did--and I know it, Tom." + +"Indeed and 'deed I did, auntie--I wish I may never stir if I didn't." + +"Oh, Tom, don't lie--don't do it. It only makes things a hundred times +worse." + +"It ain't a lie, auntie; it's the truth. I wanted to keep you from +grieving--that was all that made me come." + +"I'd give the whole world to believe that--it would cover up a power +of sins, Tom. I'd 'most be glad you'd run off and acted so bad. But it +ain't reasonable; because, why didn't you tell me, child?" + +"Why, you see, when you got to talking about the funeral, I just got +all full of the idea of our coming and hiding in the church, and I +couldn't somehow bear to spoil it. So I just put the bark back in my +pocket and kept mum." + +"What bark?" + +"The bark I had wrote on to tell you we'd gone pirating. I wish, now, +you'd waked up when I kissed you--I do, honest." + +The hard lines in his aunt's face relaxed and a sudden tenderness +dawned in her eyes. + +"DID you kiss me, Tom?" + +"Why, yes, I did." + +"Are you sure you did, Tom?" + +"Why, yes, I did, auntie--certain sure." + +"What did you kiss me for, Tom?" + +"Because I loved you so, and you laid there moaning and I was so sorry." + +The words sounded like truth. The old lady could not hide a tremor in +her voice when she said: + +"Kiss me again, Tom!--and be off with you to school, now, and don't +bother me any more." + +The moment he was gone, she ran to a closet and got out the ruin of a +jacket which Tom had gone pirating in. Then she stopped, with it in her +hand, and said to herself: + +"No, I don't dare. Poor boy, I reckon he's lied about it--but it's a +blessed, blessed lie, there's such a comfort come from it. I hope the +Lord--I KNOW the Lord will forgive him, because it was such +goodheartedness in him to tell it. But I don't want to find out it's a +lie. I won't look." + +She put the jacket away, and stood by musing a minute. Twice she put +out her hand to take the garment again, and twice she refrained. Once +more she ventured, and this time she fortified herself with the +thought: "It's a good lie--it's a good lie--I won't let it grieve me." +So she sought the jacket pocket. A moment later she was reading Tom's +piece of bark through flowing tears and saying: "I could forgive the +boy, now, if he'd committed a million sins!" + + + +CHAPTER XX + +THERE was something about Aunt Polly's manner, when she kissed Tom, +that swept away his low spirits and made him lighthearted and happy +again. He started to school and had the luck of coming upon Becky +Thatcher at the head of Meadow Lane. His mood always determined his +manner. Without a moment's hesitation he ran to her and said: + +"I acted mighty mean to-day, Becky, and I'm so sorry. I won't ever, +ever do that way again, as long as ever I live--please make up, won't +you?" + +The girl stopped and looked him scornfully in the face: + +"I'll thank you to keep yourself TO yourself, Mr. Thomas Sawyer. I'll +never speak to you again." + +She tossed her head and passed on. Tom was so stunned that he had not +even presence of mind enough to say "Who cares, Miss Smarty?" until the +right time to say it had gone by. So he said nothing. But he was in a +fine rage, nevertheless. He moped into the schoolyard wishing she were +a boy, and imagining how he would trounce her if she were. He presently +encountered her and delivered a stinging remark as he passed. She +hurled one in return, and the angry breach was complete. It seemed to +Becky, in her hot resentment, that she could hardly wait for school to +"take in," she was so impatient to see Tom flogged for the injured +spelling-book. If she had had any lingering notion of exposing Alfred +Temple, Tom's offensive fling had driven it entirely away. + +Poor girl, she did not know how fast she was nearing trouble herself. +The master, Mr. Dobbins, had reached middle age with an unsatisfied +ambition. The darling of his desires was, to be a doctor, but poverty +had decreed that he should be nothing higher than a village +schoolmaster. Every day he took a mysterious book out of his desk and +absorbed himself in it at times when no classes were reciting. He kept +that book under lock and key. There was not an urchin in school but was +perishing to have a glimpse of it, but the chance never came. Every boy +and girl had a theory about the nature of that book; but no two +theories were alike, and there was no way of getting at the facts in +the case. Now, as Becky was passing by the desk, which stood near the +door, she noticed that the key was in the lock! It was a precious +moment. She glanced around; found herself alone, and the next instant +she had the book in her hands. The title-page--Professor Somebody's +ANATOMY--carried no information to her mind; so she began to turn the +leaves. She came at once upon a handsomely engraved and colored +frontispiece--a human figure, stark naked. At that moment a shadow fell +on the page and Tom Sawyer stepped in at the door and caught a glimpse +of the picture. Becky snatched at the book to close it, and had the +hard luck to tear the pictured page half down the middle. She thrust +the volume into the desk, turned the key, and burst out crying with +shame and vexation. + +"Tom Sawyer, you are just as mean as you can be, to sneak up on a +person and look at what they're looking at." + +"How could I know you was looking at anything?" + +"You ought to be ashamed of yourself, Tom Sawyer; you know you're +going to tell on me, and oh, what shall I do, what shall I do! I'll be +whipped, and I never was whipped in school." + +Then she stamped her little foot and said: + +"BE so mean if you want to! I know something that's going to happen. +You just wait and you'll see! Hateful, hateful, hateful!"--and she +flung out of the house with a new explosion of crying. + +Tom stood still, rather flustered by this onslaught. Presently he said +to himself: + +"What a curious kind of a fool a girl is! Never been licked in school! +Shucks! What's a licking! That's just like a girl--they're so +thin-skinned and chicken-hearted. Well, of course I ain't going to tell +old Dobbins on this little fool, because there's other ways of getting +even on her, that ain't so mean; but what of it? Old Dobbins will ask +who it was tore his book. Nobody'll answer. Then he'll do just the way +he always does--ask first one and then t'other, and when he comes to the +right girl he'll know it, without any telling. Girls' faces always tell +on them. They ain't got any backbone. She'll get licked. Well, it's a +kind of a tight place for Becky Thatcher, because there ain't any way +out of it." Tom conned the thing a moment longer, and then added: "All +right, though; she'd like to see me in just such a fix--let her sweat it +out!" + +Tom joined the mob of skylarking scholars outside. In a few moments +the master arrived and school "took in." Tom did not feel a strong +interest in his studies. Every time he stole a glance at the girls' +side of the room Becky's face troubled him. Considering all things, he +did not want to pity her, and yet it was all he could do to help it. He +could get up no exultation that was really worthy the name. Presently +the spelling-book discovery was made, and Tom's mind was entirely full +of his own matters for a while after that. Becky roused up from her +lethargy of distress and showed good interest in the proceedings. She +did not expect that Tom could get out of his trouble by denying that he +spilt the ink on the book himself; and she was right. The denial only +seemed to make the thing worse for Tom. Becky supposed she would be +glad of that, and she tried to believe she was glad of it, but she +found she was not certain. When the worst came to the worst, she had an +impulse to get up and tell on Alfred Temple, but she made an effort and +forced herself to keep still--because, said she to herself, "he'll tell +about me tearing the picture sure. I wouldn't say a word, not to save +his life!" + +Tom took his whipping and went back to his seat not at all +broken-hearted, for he thought it was possible that he had unknowingly +upset the ink on the spelling-book himself, in some skylarking bout--he +had denied it for form's sake and because it was custom, and had stuck +to the denial from principle. + +A whole hour drifted by, the master sat nodding in his throne, the air +was drowsy with the hum of study. By and by, Mr. Dobbins straightened +himself up, yawned, then unlocked his desk, and reached for his book, +but seemed undecided whether to take it out or leave it. Most of the +pupils glanced up languidly, but there were two among them that watched +his movements with intent eyes. Mr. Dobbins fingered his book absently +for a while, then took it out and settled himself in his chair to read! +Tom shot a glance at Becky. He had seen a hunted and helpless rabbit +look as she did, with a gun levelled at its head. Instantly he forgot +his quarrel with her. Quick--something must be done! done in a flash, +too! But the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention. +Good!--he had an inspiration! He would run and snatch the book, spring +through the door and fly. But his resolution shook for one little +instant, and the chance was lost--the master opened the volume. If Tom +only had the wasted opportunity back again! Too late. There was no help +for Becky now, he said. The next moment the master faced the school. +Every eye sank under his gaze. There was that in it which smote even +the innocent with fear. There was silence while one might count ten +--the master was gathering his wrath. Then he spoke: "Who tore this book?" + +There was not a sound. One could have heard a pin drop. The stillness +continued; the master searched face after face for signs of guilt. + +"Benjamin Rogers, did you tear this book?" + +A denial. Another pause. + +"Joseph Harper, did you?" + +Another denial. Tom's uneasiness grew more and more intense under the +slow torture of these proceedings. The master scanned the ranks of +boys--considered a while, then turned to the girls: + +"Amy Lawrence?" + +A shake of the head. + +"Gracie Miller?" + +The same sign. + +"Susan Harper, did you do this?" + +Another negative. The next girl was Becky Thatcher. Tom was trembling +from head to foot with excitement and a sense of the hopelessness of +the situation. + +"Rebecca Thatcher" [Tom glanced at her face--it was white with terror] +--"did you tear--no, look me in the face" [her hands rose in appeal] +--"did you tear this book?" + +A thought shot like lightning through Tom's brain. He sprang to his +feet and shouted--"I done it!" + +The school stared in perplexity at this incredible folly. Tom stood a +moment, to gather his dismembered faculties; and when he stepped +forward to go to his punishment the surprise, the gratitude, the +adoration that shone upon him out of poor Becky's eyes seemed pay +enough for a hundred floggings. Inspired by the splendor of his own +act, he took without an outcry the most merciless flaying that even Mr. +Dobbins had ever administered; and also received with indifference the +added cruelty of a command to remain two hours after school should be +dismissed--for he knew who would wait for him outside till his +captivity was done, and not count the tedious time as loss, either. + +Tom went to bed that night planning vengeance against Alfred Temple; +for with shame and repentance Becky had told him all, not forgetting +her own treachery; but even the longing for vengeance had to give way, +soon, to pleasanter musings, and he fell asleep at last with Becky's +latest words lingering dreamily in his ear-- + +"Tom, how COULD you be so noble!" + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +VACATION was approaching. The schoolmaster, always severe, grew +severer and more exacting than ever, for he wanted the school to make a +good showing on "Examination" day. His rod and his ferule were seldom +idle now--at least among the smaller pupils. Only the biggest boys, and +young ladies of eighteen and twenty, escaped lashing. Mr. Dobbins' +lashings were very vigorous ones, too; for although he carried, under +his wig, a perfectly bald and shiny head, he had only reached middle +age, and there was no sign of feebleness in his muscle. As the great +day approached, all the tyranny that was in him came to the surface; he +seemed to take a vindictive pleasure in punishing the least +shortcomings. The consequence was, that the smaller boys spent their +days in terror and suffering and their nights in plotting revenge. They +threw away no opportunity to do the master a mischief. But he kept +ahead all the time. The retribution that followed every vengeful +success was so sweeping and majestic that the boys always retired from +the field badly worsted. At last they conspired together and hit upon a +plan that promised a dazzling victory. They swore in the sign-painter's +boy, told him the scheme, and asked his help. He had his own reasons +for being delighted, for the master boarded in his father's family and +had given the boy ample cause to hate him. The master's wife would go +on a visit to the country in a few days, and there would be nothing to +interfere with the plan; the master always prepared himself for great +occasions by getting pretty well fuddled, and the sign-painter's boy +said that when the dominie had reached the proper condition on +Examination Evening he would "manage the thing" while he napped in his +chair; then he would have him awakened at the right time and hurried +away to school. + +In the fulness of time the interesting occasion arrived. At eight in +the evening the schoolhouse was brilliantly lighted, and adorned with +wreaths and festoons of foliage and flowers. The master sat throned in +his great chair upon a raised platform, with his blackboard behind him. +He was looking tolerably mellow. Three rows of benches on each side and +six rows in front of him were occupied by the dignitaries of the town +and by the parents of the pupils. To his left, back of the rows of +citizens, was a spacious temporary platform upon which were seated the +scholars who were to take part in the exercises of the evening; rows of +small boys, washed and dressed to an intolerable state of discomfort; +rows of gawky big boys; snowbanks of girls and young ladies clad in +lawn and muslin and conspicuously conscious of their bare arms, their +grandmothers' ancient trinkets, their bits of pink and blue ribbon and +the flowers in their hair. All the rest of the house was filled with +non-participating scholars. + +The exercises began. A very little boy stood up and sheepishly +recited, "You'd scarce expect one of my age to speak in public on the +stage," etc.--accompanying himself with the painfully exact and +spasmodic gestures which a machine might have used--supposing the +machine to be a trifle out of order. But he got through safely, though +cruelly scared, and got a fine round of applause when he made his +manufactured bow and retired. + +A little shamefaced girl lisped, "Mary had a little lamb," etc., +performed a compassion-inspiring curtsy, got her meed of applause, and +sat down flushed and happy. + +Tom Sawyer stepped forward with conceited confidence and soared into +the unquenchable and indestructible "Give me liberty or give me death" +speech, with fine fury and frantic gesticulation, and broke down in the +middle of it. A ghastly stage-fright seized him, his legs quaked under +him and he was like to choke. True, he had the manifest sympathy of the +house but he had the house's silence, too, which was even worse than +its sympathy. The master frowned, and this completed the disaster. Tom +struggled awhile and then retired, utterly defeated. There was a weak +attempt at applause, but it died early. + +"The Boy Stood on the Burning Deck" followed; also "The Assyrian Came +Down," and other declamatory gems. Then there were reading exercises, +and a spelling fight. The meagre Latin class recited with honor. The +prime feature of the evening was in order, now--original "compositions" +by the young ladies. Each in her turn stepped forward to the edge of +the platform, cleared her throat, held up her manuscript (tied with +dainty ribbon), and proceeded to read, with labored attention to +"expression" and punctuation. The themes were the same that had been +illuminated upon similar occasions by their mothers before them, their +grandmothers, and doubtless all their ancestors in the female line +clear back to the Crusades. "Friendship" was one; "Memories of Other +Days"; "Religion in History"; "Dream Land"; "The Advantages of +Culture"; "Forms of Political Government Compared and Contrasted"; +"Melancholy"; "Filial Love"; "Heart Longings," etc., etc. + +A prevalent feature in these compositions was a nursed and petted +melancholy; another was a wasteful and opulent gush of "fine language"; +another was a tendency to lug in by the ears particularly prized words +and phrases until they were worn entirely out; and a peculiarity that +conspicuously marked and marred them was the inveterate and intolerable +sermon that wagged its crippled tail at the end of each and every one +of them. No matter what the subject might be, a brain-racking effort +was made to squirm it into some aspect or other that the moral and +religious mind could contemplate with edification. The glaring +insincerity of these sermons was not sufficient to compass the +banishment of the fashion from the schools, and it is not sufficient +to-day; it never will be sufficient while the world stands, perhaps. +There is no school in all our land where the young ladies do not feel +obliged to close their compositions with a sermon; and you will find +that the sermon of the most frivolous and the least religious girl in +the school is always the longest and the most relentlessly pious. But +enough of this. Homely truth is unpalatable. + +Let us return to the "Examination." The first composition that was +read was one entitled "Is this, then, Life?" Perhaps the reader can +endure an extract from it: + + "In the common walks of life, with what delightful + emotions does the youthful mind look forward to some + anticipated scene of festivity! Imagination is busy + sketching rose-tinted pictures of joy. In fancy, the + voluptuous votary of fashion sees herself amid the + festive throng, 'the observed of all observers.' Her + graceful form, arrayed in snowy robes, is whirling + through the mazes of the joyous dance; her eye is + brightest, her step is lightest in the gay assembly. + + "In such delicious fancies time quickly glides by, + and the welcome hour arrives for her entrance into + the Elysian world, of which she has had such bright + dreams. How fairy-like does everything appear to + her enchanted vision! Each new scene is more charming + than the last. But after a while she finds that + beneath this goodly exterior, all is vanity, the + flattery which once charmed her soul, now grates + harshly upon her ear; the ball-room has lost its + charms; and with wasted health and imbittered heart, + she turns away with the conviction that earthly + pleasures cannot satisfy the longings of the soul!" + +And so forth and so on. There was a buzz of gratification from time to +time during the reading, accompanied by whispered ejaculations of "How +sweet!" "How eloquent!" "So true!" etc., and after the thing had closed +with a peculiarly afflicting sermon the applause was enthusiastic. + +Then arose a slim, melancholy girl, whose face had the "interesting" +paleness that comes of pills and indigestion, and read a "poem." Two +stanzas of it will do: + + "A MISSOURI MAIDEN'S FAREWELL TO ALABAMA + + "Alabama, good-bye! I love thee well! + But yet for a while do I leave thee now! + Sad, yes, sad thoughts of thee my heart doth swell, + And burning recollections throng my brow! + For I have wandered through thy flowery woods; + Have roamed and read near Tallapoosa's stream; + Have listened to Tallassee's warring floods, + And wooed on Coosa's side Aurora's beam. + + "Yet shame I not to bear an o'er-full heart, + Nor blush to turn behind my tearful eyes; + 'Tis from no stranger land I now must part, + 'Tis to no strangers left I yield these sighs. + Welcome and home were mine within this State, + Whose vales I leave--whose spires fade fast from me + And cold must be mine eyes, and heart, and tete, + When, dear Alabama! they turn cold on thee!" + +There were very few there who knew what "tete" meant, but the poem was +very satisfactory, nevertheless. + +Next appeared a dark-complexioned, black-eyed, black-haired young +lady, who paused an impressive moment, assumed a tragic expression, and +began to read in a measured, solemn tone: + + "A VISION + + "Dark and tempestuous was night. Around the + throne on high not a single star quivered; but + the deep intonations of the heavy thunder + constantly vibrated upon the ear; whilst the + terrific lightning revelled in angry mood + through the cloudy chambers of heaven, seeming + to scorn the power exerted over its terror by + the illustrious Franklin! Even the boisterous + winds unanimously came forth from their mystic + homes, and blustered about as if to enhance by + their aid the wildness of the scene. + + "At such a time, so dark, so dreary, for human + sympathy my very spirit sighed; but instead thereof, + + "'My dearest friend, my counsellor, my comforter + and guide--My joy in grief, my second bliss + in joy,' came to my side. She moved like one of + those bright beings pictured in the sunny walks + of fancy's Eden by the romantic and young, a + queen of beauty unadorned save by her own + transcendent loveliness. So soft was her step, it + failed to make even a sound, and but for the + magical thrill imparted by her genial touch, as + other unobtrusive beauties, she would have glided + away un-perceived--unsought. A strange sadness + rested upon her features, like icy tears upon + the robe of December, as she pointed to the + contending elements without, and bade me contemplate + the two beings presented." + +This nightmare occupied some ten pages of manuscript and wound up with +a sermon so destructive of all hope to non-Presbyterians that it took +the first prize. This composition was considered to be the very finest +effort of the evening. The mayor of the village, in delivering the +prize to the author of it, made a warm speech in which he said that it +was by far the most "eloquent" thing he had ever listened to, and that +Daniel Webster himself might well be proud of it. + +It may be remarked, in passing, that the number of compositions in +which the word "beauteous" was over-fondled, and human experience +referred to as "life's page," was up to the usual average. + +Now the master, mellow almost to the verge of geniality, put his chair +aside, turned his back to the audience, and began to draw a map of +America on the blackboard, to exercise the geography class upon. But he +made a sad business of it with his unsteady hand, and a smothered +titter rippled over the house. He knew what the matter was, and set +himself to right it. He sponged out lines and remade them; but he only +distorted them more than ever, and the tittering was more pronounced. +He threw his entire attention upon his work, now, as if determined not +to be put down by the mirth. He felt that all eyes were fastened upon +him; he imagined he was succeeding, and yet the tittering continued; it +even manifestly increased. And well it might. There was a garret above, +pierced with a scuttle over his head; and down through this scuttle +came a cat, suspended around the haunches by a string; she had a rag +tied about her head and jaws to keep her from mewing; as she slowly +descended she curved upward and clawed at the string, she swung +downward and clawed at the intangible air. The tittering rose higher +and higher--the cat was within six inches of the absorbed teacher's +head--down, down, a little lower, and she grabbed his wig with her +desperate claws, clung to it, and was snatched up into the garret in an +instant with her trophy still in her possession! And how the light did +blaze abroad from the master's bald pate--for the sign-painter's boy +had GILDED it! + +That broke up the meeting. The boys were avenged. Vacation had come. + + NOTE:--The pretended "compositions" quoted in + this chapter are taken without alteration from a + volume entitled "Prose and Poetry, by a Western + Lady"--but they are exactly and precisely after + the schoolgirl pattern, and hence are much + happier than any mere imitations could be. + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +TOM joined the new order of Cadets of Temperance, being attracted by +the showy character of their "regalia." He promised to abstain from +smoking, chewing, and profanity as long as he remained a member. Now he +found out a new thing--namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the +surest way in the world to make a body want to go and do that very +thing. Tom soon found himself tormented with a desire to drink and +swear; the desire grew to be so intense that nothing but the hope of a +chance to display himself in his red sash kept him from withdrawing +from the order. Fourth of July was coming; but he soon gave that up +--gave it up before he had worn his shackles over forty-eight hours--and +fixed his hopes upon old Judge Frazer, justice of the peace, who was +apparently on his deathbed and would have a big public funeral, since +he was so high an official. During three days Tom was deeply concerned +about the Judge's condition and hungry for news of it. Sometimes his +hopes ran high--so high that he would venture to get out his regalia +and practise before the looking-glass. But the Judge had a most +discouraging way of fluctuating. At last he was pronounced upon the +mend--and then convalescent. Tom was disgusted; and felt a sense of +injury, too. He handed in his resignation at once--and that night the +Judge suffered a relapse and died. Tom resolved that he would never +trust a man like that again. + +The funeral was a fine thing. The Cadets paraded in a style calculated +to kill the late member with envy. Tom was a free boy again, however +--there was something in that. He could drink and swear, now--but found +to his surprise that he did not want to. The simple fact that he could, +took the desire away, and the charm of it. + +Tom presently wondered to find that his coveted vacation was beginning +to hang a little heavily on his hands. + +He attempted a diary--but nothing happened during three days, and so +he abandoned it. + +The first of all the negro minstrel shows came to town, and made a +sensation. Tom and Joe Harper got up a band of performers and were +happy for two days. + +Even the Glorious Fourth was in some sense a failure, for it rained +hard, there was no procession in consequence, and the greatest man in +the world (as Tom supposed), Mr. Benton, an actual United States +Senator, proved an overwhelming disappointment--for he was not +twenty-five feet high, nor even anywhere in the neighborhood of it. + +A circus came. The boys played circus for three days afterward in +tents made of rag carpeting--admission, three pins for boys, two for +girls--and then circusing was abandoned. + +A phrenologist and a mesmerizer came--and went again and left the +village duller and drearier than ever. + +There were some boys-and-girls' parties, but they were so few and so +delightful that they only made the aching voids between ache the harder. + +Becky Thatcher was gone to her Constantinople home to stay with her +parents during vacation--so there was no bright side to life anywhere. + +The dreadful secret of the murder was a chronic misery. It was a very +cancer for permanency and pain. + +Then came the measles. + +During two long weeks Tom lay a prisoner, dead to the world and its +happenings. He was very ill, he was interested in nothing. When he got +upon his feet at last and moved feebly down-town, a melancholy change +had come over everything and every creature. There had been a +"revival," and everybody had "got religion," not only the adults, but +even the boys and girls. Tom went about, hoping against hope for the +sight of one blessed sinful face, but disappointment crossed him +everywhere. He found Joe Harper studying a Testament, and turned sadly +away from the depressing spectacle. He sought Ben Rogers, and found him +visiting the poor with a basket of tracts. He hunted up Jim Hollis, who +called his attention to the precious blessing of his late measles as a +warning. Every boy he encountered added another ton to his depression; +and when, in desperation, he flew for refuge at last to the bosom of +Huckleberry Finn and was received with a Scriptural quotation, his +heart broke and he crept home and to bed realizing that he alone of all +the town was lost, forever and forever. + +And that night there came on a terrific storm, with driving rain, +awful claps of thunder and blinding sheets of lightning. He covered his +head with the bedclothes and waited in a horror of suspense for his +doom; for he had not the shadow of a doubt that all this hubbub was +about him. He believed he had taxed the forbearance of the powers above +to the extremity of endurance and that this was the result. It might +have seemed to him a waste of pomp and ammunition to kill a bug with a +battery of artillery, but there seemed nothing incongruous about the +getting up such an expensive thunderstorm as this to knock the turf +from under an insect like himself. + +By and by the tempest spent itself and died without accomplishing its +object. The boy's first impulse was to be grateful, and reform. His +second was to wait--for there might not be any more storms. + +The next day the doctors were back; Tom had relapsed. The three weeks +he spent on his back this time seemed an entire age. When he got abroad +at last he was hardly grateful that he had been spared, remembering how +lonely was his estate, how companionless and forlorn he was. He drifted +listlessly down the street and found Jim Hollis acting as judge in a +juvenile court that was trying a cat for murder, in the presence of her +victim, a bird. He found Joe Harper and Huck Finn up an alley eating a +stolen melon. Poor lads! they--like Tom--had suffered a relapse. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Part 5. +by Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TOM SAWYER *** + +***** This file should be named 7197.txt or 7197.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/7/1/9/7197/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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