The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

As punishment, Aunt Polly makes Tom whitewash a fence on Saturday, when everyone else has free time. He tries to convince Jim, a local Black boy, to help him in exchange for a look at Tom’s sore toe. Aunt Polly catches them negotiating and sends Jim away. As he begins work, Tom dreads the thought of the other children seeing and teasing him.

When a boy named Ben approaches, Tom has an idea. He pretends to love the work because whitewashing is a rare task. It’s not every day that someone gets a chance to whitewash. Tom’s pleasure in the task tempts Ben, and he asks to help. Tom eventually relents, and Ben works while Tom eats Ben’s apple. Soon, several boys are whitewashing for Tom. Many of them even barter away their trinkets and treasures to Tom in exchange for the privilege. Twain writes that Tom has discovered a universal fact: Work may be an obligation, but play consists of “whatever a body is not obliged to do” (17).

Aunt Polly is astonished to find that the work is done. She compliments Tom and gives him an apple. Outside, Tom throws dirt clods at Sid as revenge for his role in Tom’s punishment.

As is customary on Saturdays, Tom supervises—as a general—a battle between two groups of boys. After the war ends, he sees a blond girl in a garden on his way home. He immediately forgets about Amy Lawrence, who has been his love until that moment. He shows off with cartwheels and tricks when he realizes she sees him.

When she goes inside, Tom waits until evening, but she never comes back out. At home, his good mood makes Aunt Polly suspicious at supper. During dinner, Sid breaks the sugar bowl and Tom is giddy, but Aunt Polly hits Tom instead. When Tom says that it was Sid’s fault, Aunt Polly’s guilt gratifies him, although she says Tom probably deserved it for something else. He imagines her begging for his forgiveness on his death bed, and him denying her pleas. He is so moved by his vision that he starts crying.

Tom goes outside and sits on a raft tethered to the shore of the river. He wonders if the blond girl would pity him. He goes to her house and lies under her window, only to have a servant dump water on him. At home, Sid has the sense not to ask Tom why he is wet.

On Sunday, Aunt Polly preaches and reads scriptures to them at breakfast. Tom has been trying to memorize the five-verse Sermon on the Mount for an assignment so that he can win a prize at church. After helping him practice, his cousin Mary gives him a knife as a reward, before helping him get clean and nicely dressed.

Tom hates church. Before going into Sunday school, he swaps marbles and treasures with the other boys for their colored tickets. The boys earned the tickets by memorizing Bible verses. Tom remembers a boy who memorized and recited 3,000 consecutive verses, which rendered him senseless from then on.

Mr. Walters addresses the congregation. Everyone whispers when lawyer Thatcher enters with a group, including his brother, Judge Thatcher, and the blond girl Tom saw in the garden. Everyone in the crowd begins showing off, hoping the judge will notice.

Mr. Walters wants to give a fancy Bible as a prize to impress Judge Thatcher. However, it’s rare that anyone has memorized enough verses to supply the requisite tickets. Tom, however, has 9 yellow tickets, 9 red tickets, and 10 blue tickets. When he receives the Bible, Tom’s new fame delights him, but the other boys realize why he wanted their tickets. He had gotten their tickets by trading the items he took from them when they whitewashed the fence for him.

Amy Lawrence tries to get Tom’s attention, but he won’t acknowledge her. The judge congratulates Tom on memorizing his 2,000 verses. When the judge asks Tom to demonstrate his knowledge and tell everyone the names of the first two of Jesus’s disciples, Tom says, “David and Goliath” (38), and Twain ends the scene quickly.

After Sunday school, the sermon begins. Tom sees the Model Boy, Willie Mufferson. Willie is always helping his mother. The boys all hate him because their mothers always want them to be more like Willie. The minister gives a theatrical reading. He is often invited to ladies’ lunches because of the strength of his voice and his rhetorical flourishes. He gives a long prayer that makes Tom restless. He watches a fly mockingly polish its head in safety, as if it knows Tom can’t move during the prayer. He grabs the fly the moment the minister concludes.

Tom has a pinch bug—a type of beetle—in a percussion-cap box. After he releases it, everyone watches it in the aisle. A dog gets off its owner’s lap and sniffs the bug, which pinches the dog’s nose as everyone laughs quietly. The dog runs away, then comes back for revenge. It sits on the beetle and yelps again. It jumps onto its owner’s lap, the beetle still attached to its flank, and the owner puts the dog out the window as everyone tries to hold their laughter. Tom is annoyed that the dog left with the beetle.

Tom hates Monday mornings. On this particular Monday, he can’t find any symptoms of illness that would let him miss school. He decides not to use a loose tooth as an excuse, because Aunt Polly might pull it and send him to school anyway. Tom looks at his sore toe and groans for Sid’s attention. When Sid wakes and asks what’s wrong, Tom says that he forgives him for everything. Sid worries that Tom is dying. Tom tells Aunt Polly that his toe is “mortified,” which makes her laugh. Then she pulls his tooth and sends him to school. However, the lost tooth makes the other boys jealous, so Tom is pleased.

On the way to school, Tom sees Huckleberry Finn, his friend and “son of the town drunkard” (49). Like most boys, Tom envies Huck and his freedom. Huck has a dead cat that he says can cure warts if they take it to the grave of a wicked man at midnight. Tom tells him about another ritual in which a bean can cure warts. Huck claims he learned the cat ritual from a witch, Mother Hopkins. He knows she’s a witch because Pap, Huck’s father, says she cursed him and made him fall off a shed when he was drunk. Tom asks if he can go with Huck that night. Then he trades his tooth to Huck for a tick, which he puts in the pinch bug’s former home.

At school, the teacher asks Tom why he’s late. Tom sees the blond girl and immediately says he stopped to talk with Huckleberry Finn. The teacher is so shocked that he punishes Tom by making him sit with the girls, where the only available seat is next to the blond girl. She scoots away when Tom sits.

He offers her a peach, but she refuses to take it. Then he draws a house on his slate. She approves and asks him to draw a man, which he does terribly. Then she wants him to draw her. Tom says he’ll teach her to draw, and she introduces herself as Becky Thatcher. He writes “I love you” (58) on his slate and hides it from her until she begs to see it. Then the teacher drags Tom to his desk by the ear. Tom is happy, but useless for the rest of the day.

Tom lets the tick out as he waits for recess. He steers it across his slate with a pin as Joe Harper watches. They draw a line on the slate and try to keep the tick on their respective halves by blocking its progress. Eventually, Tom tries to cheat just before the teacher stops them. Tom tells Becky to meet him at recess.

Under a tree, Tom guides her hand with a pencil as she draws. Then he asks if she loves rats. She says no, but she loves gum, and they take turns chewing her piece. Then Tom asks if she’ll become engaged to him. He describes being engaged and says he loves her. She whispers that she loves him and then runs around the room. He catches her and kisses her. He says that being engaged is fun, which he knows because of his engagement to Amy Lawrence. This breaks Becky’s heart, and Tom can’t get her to stop crying. He offers her a fancy knob from an andiron but leaves the building when she slaps it out of his hand. She follows him, but he is gone.