Professional Documents
Culture Documents
BY
MARK TWAIN
(Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
PREFACE
THE AUTHOR.
HARTFORD, 1876.
TOM SAWYER
CHAPTER I
"TOM!"
No answer.
"TOM!"
No answer.
"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!"
No answer.
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.
"Y-o-u-u TOM!"
"Nothing."
"Yes'm."
"Yes'm."
The old lady reached out her hand and felt Tom's
shirt, and said:
But Tom did not wait for the rest. As he went out
at the door he said:
"Yes I can."
"I can."
"You can't."
"Can!"
"Can't!"
"Well why don't you DO it? You SAY you can do it."
"Well I WILL, if you fool with me."
"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."
"Well I WILL."
"You are."
"I ain't."
"You are."
"I won't."
"That's a lie."
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."
"Now you said you'd do it, now let's see you do it."
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 be-
tween 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 out-
side, 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.
CHAPTER II
CHAPTER III
CHAPTER IV
"Poor" --
"THEIRS --"
"Sh --"
"S, H, A --"
"SHALL!"
"You bet you that's so, Mary. All right, I'll tackle
it again."
"Yes."
"Tom."
"Thomas."
CHAPTER V
Whilst others fight to win the prize, and sail thro' BLOOD-
y seas?
After the hymn had been sung, the Rev. Mr. Sprague
turned himself into a bulletin-board, and read off
"notices" of meetings and societies and things till it
seemed that the list would stretch out to the crack of
doom -- a queer custom which is still kept up in America,
even in cities, away here in this age of abundant news-
papers. Often, the less there is to justify a traditional
custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.
CHAPTER VI
"Dying!"
Tom said:
"Oh, please, auntie, don't pull it out. It don't
hurt any more. I wish I may never stir if it does.
Please don't, auntie. I don't want to stay home
from school."
"Hello, Huckleberry!"
"Dead cat."
"Why, spunk-water."
"Certainly."
"You take and split the bean, and cut the wart so
as to get some blood, and then you put the blood on
one piece of the bean and take and dig a hole and
bury it 'bout midnight at the crossroads in the dark
of the moon, and then you burn up the rest of the bean.
You see that piece that's got the blood on it will keep
drawing and drawing, trying to fetch the other piece to
it, and so that helps the blood to draw the wart, and
pretty soon off she comes."
"Why, you take your cat and go and get in the grave-
yard 'long about midnight when somebody that was
wicked has been buried; and when it's midnight a devil
will come, or maybe two or three, but you can't see
'em, you can only hear something like the wind, or
maybe hear 'em talk; and when they're taking that feller
away, you heave your cat after 'em and say, 'Devil
follow corpse, cat follow devil, warts follow cat, I'm
done with ye!' That'll fetch ANY wart."
"Is it genuwyne?"
"Thomas Sawyer!"
"Sir!"
"Now, sir, go and sit with the girls! And let this
be a warning to you."
"Yes."
"Yes it is."
"You'll tell."
CHAPTER VII
"I won't!"
"You shall -- he's on my side of the line."
"What's that?"
"No."
"Everybody?"
"Ye -- yes."
"No, now."
"Now, Becky, it's all done -- all over but the kiss.
Don't you be afraid of that -- it ain't anything at all.
Please, Becky." And he tugged at her apron and the
hands.
Tom tried to put his arm about her neck, but she
pushed him away and turned her face to the wall,
and went on crying. Tom tried again, with sooth-
ing words in his mouth, and was repulsed again.
Then his pride was up, and he strode away and went
outside. He stood about, restless and uneasy, for a
while, glancing at the door, every now and then,
hoping she would repent and come to find him. But
she did not. Then he began to feel badly and fear
that he was in the wrong. It was a hard struggle
with him to make new advances, now, but he nerved
himself to it and entered. She was still standing back
there in the corner, sobbing, with her face to the wall.
Tom's heart smote him. He went to her and stood a
moment, not knowing exactly how to proceed. Then
he said hesitatingly:
More sobs.
CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER IX
Huckleberry whispered:
"Sh!"
"I --"
"Listen!"
"Sh!"
"What's verdigrease?"
"I don't like to, much. Tom, s'pose it's Injun Joe!"
CHAPTER XI
"Muff Potter!"
CHAPTER XII
"You DO?"
"Yes'm."
The old lady was bending down, Tom watching,
with interest emphasized by anxiety. Too late he
divined her "drift." The handle of the telltale tea-
spoon was visible under the bed-valance. Aunt Polly
took it, held it up. Tom winced, and dropped his eyes.
Aunt Polly raised him by the usual handle -- his ear --
and cracked his head soundly with her thimble.
"I know you was meaning for the best, aunty, and
so was I with Peter. It done HIM good, too. I never
see him get around so since --"
CHAPTER XIII
"BLOOD!"
Then Tom tumbled his ham over the bluff and let
himself down after it, tearing both skin and clothes
to some extent in the effort. There was an easy, com-
fortable path along the shore under the bluff, but it
lacked the advantages of difficulty and danger so val-
ued by a pirate.
"Aye-aye, sir!"
"Steady, steady-y-y-y!"
"Aye-aye, sir!"
"Aye-aye, sir!"
When the last crisp slice of bacon was gone, and the
last allowance of corn pone devoured, the boys stretched
themselves out on the grass, filled with contentment.
They could have found a cooler place, but they would
not deny themselves such a romantic feature as the
roasting camp-fire.
"It's just the life for me," said Tom. "You don't
have to get up, mornings, and you don't have to go to
school, and wash, and all that blame foolishness. You
see a pirate don't have to do ANYTHING, Joe, when he's
ashore, but a hermit HE has to be praying considerable,
and then he don't have any fun, anyway, all by himself
that way."
Tom said:
But the other boys told him the fine clothes would
come fast enough, after they should have begun their
adventures. They made him understand that his poor
rags would do to begin with, though it was customary
for wealthy pirates to start with a proper wardrobe.
CHAPTER XIV
For some time, now, the boys had been dully con-
scious of a peculiar sound in the distance, just as one
sometimes is of the ticking of a clock which he takes no
distinct note of. But now this mysterious sound be-
came more pronounced, and forced a recognition. The
boys started, glanced at each other, and then each as-
sumed a listening attitude. There was a long silence,
profound and unbroken; then a deep, sullen boom
came floating down out of the distance.
CHAPTER XV
But this memory was too much for the old lady,
and she broke entirely down. Tom was snuffling, now,
himself -- and more in pity of himself than anybody
else. He could hear Mary crying, and putting in a
kindly word for him from time to time. He began to
have a nobler opinion of himself than ever before.
Still, he was sufficiently touched by his aunt's grief to
long to rush out from under the bed and overwhelm
her with joy -- and the theatrical gorgeousness of the
thing appealed strongly to his nature, too, but he re-
sisted and lay still.
CHAPTER XVI
"I won't! You can all go, if you want to. I mean
to stay."
"I bleeve I could smoke this pipe all day," said Joe.
"I don't feel sick."
"So do I."
"I'll help you. You go over that way and I'll hunt
around by the spring. No, you needn't come, Huck --
we can find it."
But at last the battle was done, and the forces re-
tired with weaker and weaker threatenings and grum-
blings, and peace resumed her sway. The boys went
back to camp, a good deal awed; but they found there
was still something to be thankful for, because the great
sycamore, the shelter of their beds, was a ruin, now,
blasted by the lightnings, and they were not under it
when the catastrophe happened.
CHAPTER XVII
CHAPTER XVIII
"It ain't much -- a cat does that much -- but it's bet-
ter than nothing. What did you dream?"
"You made him -- you -- Oh, you made him shut it."
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!"
"Well, she will. The picnic's for me. She'll let any-
body come that I want, and I want you."
"Yes."
"Yes."
"Yes."
CHAPTER XIX
CHAPTER XX
Poor girl, she did not know how fast she was near-
ing 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 un-
der 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 Some-
body'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 hu-
man 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.
"Amy Lawrence?"
"Gracie Miller?"
CHAPTER XXI
"A VISION
CHAPTER XXII
The next day the doctors were back; Tom had re-
lapsed. 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, remem-
bering 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.
CHAPTER XXIII
"'Bout what?"
"Never a word?"
"I'm agreed."
"Yes, they talk like that, all the time. I've heard
'em say that if he was to get free they'd lynch him."
Tom was out late, that night, and came to bed through
the window. He was in a tremendous state of excite-
ment. It was hours before he got to sleep. All the
village flocked to the court-house the next morning, for
this was to be the great day. Both sexes were about
equally represented in the packed audience. After a
long wait the jury filed in and took their places; shortly
afterward, Potter, pale and haggard, timid and hopeless,
was brought in, with chains upon him, and seated where
all the curious eyes could stare at him; no less con-
spicuous was Injun Joe, stolid as ever. There was an-
other pause, and then the judge arrived and the sheriff
proclaimed the opening of the court. The usual whis-
perings among the lawyers and gathering together of
papers followed. These details and accompanying
delays worked up an atmosphere of preparation that
was as impressive as it was fascinating.
"Yes, sir."
"Near as I am to you."
CHAPTER XXIV
CHAPTER XXV
"HyroQwhich?"
"No."
"Well then, how you going to find the marks?"
"Not as I remember."
"No?"
"Well, if they like it, Tom, all right; but I don't want
to be a king and have only just a given name, like a
nigger. But say -- where you going to dig first?"
"I'm agreed."
"So do I."
"Married!"
"That's it."
"What's that?".
"Lordy!"
"I don't like to stir 'em up, either. S'pose this one
here was to stick his skull out and say something!"
"Say, Tom, let's give this place up, and try some-
wheres else."
"No."
"I'm agreed."
The two men got out some food and made a luncheon.
After a long and thoughtful silence, Injun Joe said:
"I know it," said Injun Joe; "and this looks like it,
I should say."
CHAPTER XXVII
"Hello, Huck!"
"Hello, yourself."
"Lemme think."
CHAPTER XXVIII
"No!"
"How?"
Huck shuddered.
CHAPTER XXIX
The girl turned the idea over in her mind, and said
reluctantly:
Three minutes later the old man and his sons, well
armed, were up the hill, and just entering the sumach
path on tiptoe, their weapons in their hands. Huck
accompanied them no further. He hid behind a great
bowlder and fell to listening. There was a lagging,
anxious silence, and then all of a sudden there was
an explosion of firearms and a cry.
CHAPTER XXX
"Who's there!"
"Of WHAT?"
"Your Becky?"
"Why, no."
"No'm."
CHAPTER XXXI
"Tom, I am so hungry!"
"Tom!"
"Well, Becky?"
CHAPTER XXXII
"Well, there are others just like you, Tom, I've not
the least doubt. But we have taken care of that.
Nobody will get lost in that cave any more."
"Why?"
CHAPTER XXXIII
"I know what it is. You got into No. 2 and never
found anything but whiskey. Nobody told me it was
you; but I just knowed it must 'a' ben you, soon as
I heard 'bout that whiskey business; and I knowed you
hadn't got the money becuz you'd 'a' got at me some
way or other and told me even if you was mum to
everybody else. Tom, something's always told me
we'd never get holt of that swag."
"Now you see this bluff here looks all alike all the
way down from the cave hollow -- no houses, no wood-
yards, bushes all alike. But do you see that white
place up yonder where there's been a landslide?
Well, that's one of my marks. We'll get ashore,
now."
They landed.
"What's a ransom?"
The money was soon in the bags and the boys took
it up to the cross rock.
"What orgies?"
"I judged so; the boys in this town will take more
trouble and fool away more time hunting up six bits'
worth of old iron to sell to the foundry than they would
to make twice the money at regular work. But that's
human nature -- hurry along, hurry along!"
CHAPTER XXXIV
"Well, what?"
CHAPTER XXXV
"What's that?"
CONCLUSION
***