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09 - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer - Mark Twain · Classic Adventure Books - Daily

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Speaker 1: In chapter eighteen, Tom reveals his dream secret. That was
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Speaker 1: Tom's great secret, the scheme to return home with his
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Speaker 1: brother pirates and attend their own funerals. They had paddled
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Speaker 1: over to the Missouri shore on a log at dusk
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Speaker 1: on Saturday, landing five or six miles below the village.
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Speaker 1: They had slept in the woods at the edge of
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Speaker 1: the town till nearly daylight, and had then crept through
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Speaker 1: back lanes and alleys and finished their sleep in the
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Speaker 1: gallery of the church among a chaos of invalided benches.
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Speaker 1: At breakfast Monday morning, Aunt Polly and Mary were very
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Speaker 1: loving to Tom and very attentive to his wants. There
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Speaker 1: was an unusual amount of talk in the course of it.
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Speaker 1: Aunt Polly said, well, I don't say it wasn't a
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Speaker 1: fine joke, Tom, to keep everybody suffering most a week.
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Speaker 1: So you boys had a good time, But it is
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Speaker 1: a pity you could be so hard hearted as to
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Speaker 1: let me suffer. So if you could have come over
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Speaker 1: on a log to go to your funeral, you could
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Speaker 1: have come over and give me a hint some way
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Speaker 1: that you weren't dead, but only run off. Yes, you
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Speaker 1: could have done that, Tom said, Mary, and I believe
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Speaker 1: you would if you had thought of it? Would you, Tom?
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Speaker 1: Said Aunt Polly, her face lightning wistfully, say, now, would
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Speaker 1: you if you'd thought of it? I well, I don't know.
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Speaker 1: Twould have spoiled everything? Tom. I hoped you loved me
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Speaker 1: that much, said Aunt Polly with a grieved tone that
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Speaker 1: discomforted the boy. It would have been something if you'd
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Speaker 1: cared enough to think of it, even if you didn't
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Speaker 1: do it. Now, Auntie, that ain't any harm, pleaded Mary.
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Speaker 1: It's only Tom's giddy way. He's always in such a
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Speaker 1: rush that he never thinks of anything. More's the pity
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Speaker 1: Sid would have thought, and Sid would have come and
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Speaker 1: done it too. Tom, you'll look back some day when
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Speaker 1: it's too late and wish you'd cared a little more
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Speaker 1: for me, when it would have cost you so little. Now, Auntie,
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Speaker 1: you know I do care for you, said Tom. I'd
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Speaker 1: know it better if you acted more like it. I
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Speaker 1: wish now i'd thought, said Tom, with a repentant tone.
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Speaker 1: But I dreamed about you anyway. That's something, ain't it.
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Speaker 1: It ain't much A cat does that much, but it's
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Speaker 1: better than nothing. What did you dream? Why? Wednesday night,
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Speaker 1: I dreamt that you was sitting over there by the bed,
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Speaker 1: and Sid was sitting by the wood box, and Mary
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Speaker 1: next to him. Well, so we did, so we always do.
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Speaker 1: I'm glad your dreams could take even that much trouble
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Speaker 1: about us. And I dreamt that Joe Harper's mother was here.
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Speaker 1: Why she was here? Did you dream any more? Oh? Lots?
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Speaker 1: But it's so dim now. Well, try to recollect, can't you.
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Speaker 1: Somehow it seems to me that the wind, the wind
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Speaker 1: blowed the the try harder, Tom, the wind did blow something. Come.
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Speaker 1: Tom pressed his fingers to his forehead an anxious minute,
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Speaker 1: and then said, I've got it. Now, I've got it now,
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Speaker 1: it'd blowed the candle. Mercy on us. Go on, Tom,
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Speaker 1: go on. And it seems to me that you said,
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Speaker 1: why I believe that that door? Go on, Tom, just
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Speaker 1: let me study a moment, just a moment. Oh, yes,
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Speaker 1: you said you believed the door was open, as I'm
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Speaker 1: sitting here, I did, didn't I marry? Go on? And
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Speaker 1: then and then well, I won't be certain, but it
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Speaker 1: seems like because if you made Sid go and and well, well,
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Speaker 1: what did I make him do? Tom? What did I
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Speaker 1: make him do? You made him you, oh, you made
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Speaker 1: him shut it well, for Land's sake, I never heard
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Speaker 1: the beat of that in all my days. Don't tell
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Speaker 1: me there ain't anything in dreams anymore. Serenity Harper shall
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Speaker 1: know of this before I'm an hour older. I'd like
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Speaker 1: to see her get around this with her rubbage about superstition.
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Speaker 1: Go on, Tom, Oh, it's all getting just as bright
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Speaker 1: as day now. Next you said, I warn't bad, only
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Speaker 1: mischievous and harum scarum, and not any more responsible than then.
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Speaker 1: I think it was a cold or something, and so
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Speaker 1: it was, well, goodness, gracious, go on, Tom. And then
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Speaker 1: you began to cry. So I did so I did
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Speaker 1: not the first time neither and then or then missus
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Speaker 1: Harper she began to cry and said Joe was just
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Speaker 1: the same, and she wished she hadn't whipped him for
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Speaker 1: taking cream when she'd thrown it out of her own self. Tom,
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Speaker 1: the spirit was upon you. You was a prophesying, that's what
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Speaker 1: she was a doing. Let alive, go on, Tom. Well,
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Speaker 1: then Sid, he said, he said, Well, I don't think
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Speaker 1: I said anything, said Sid, Yes you did, Sid said, Mary,
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Speaker 1: shut your heads and let Tom go. What did he say, Tom,
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Speaker 1: he said. I think he said he hoped I was
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Speaker 1: better off where I was gone to, but if I'd
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Speaker 1: been better sometimes there to hear that. It was his
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Speaker 1: very words, and you shut him up sharp, I lay,
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Speaker 1: I did, there must have been an angel there. There
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Speaker 1: was an angel there somewheres. And Missus Harper told about
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Speaker 1: Joe Scarce bring her with a firecracker, and you told
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Speaker 1: about Peter and the painkiller, just as true as I live.
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Speaker 1: And then there was a whole lot of talk about
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Speaker 1: dragging the river for us, and about having the funeral Sunday,
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Speaker 1: and then you and old miss Harper hugged and cried,
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Speaker 1: and she went, it happened just so, It happened, just
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Speaker 1: so as sure as I'm sitting in these very tracks, Tom,
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Speaker 1: you couldn't have told it more like if you'd have
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Speaker 1: seen it. And then what go on? Tom? Then I
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Speaker 1: thought you prayed for me, and I could see you
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Speaker 1: and hear every word you said. And you went to bed,
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Speaker 1: and I was so sorry that I took and wrote
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Speaker 1: on a piece of sycamore bark we ain't dead, we
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Speaker 1: were only off being pirates, and put it on the
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Speaker 1: table by the candle. And then you looked so good
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Speaker 1: laying there asleep that I thought. I went and leaned
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Speaker 1: over and kissed you on the lips. Did you, Tom?
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Speaker 1: Did you? I just forgive you everything for that? And
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Speaker 1: she seized the boy in a crushing embrace that made
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Speaker 1: him feel like the guiltiest of villains. It was very kind,
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Speaker 1: even though it was only a dream, said soliloquies. Just audibly,
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Speaker 1: shut up, Sid, A body does just the same and
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Speaker 1: a dream as he'd do if he was awake. Here's
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Speaker 1: a big milum apple I've been saving for you, Tom,
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Speaker 1: if you was ever found again. Now go long to school.
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Speaker 1: I'm thankful to the good God and Father of us
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Speaker 1: all I've got you back. That's long suffering and merciful
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Speaker 1: to them that believe on him and keep his word,
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Speaker 1: though Goodness knows I'm unworthy of it. But if only
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Speaker 1: the worthy ones got his blessings and had his hand
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Speaker 1: to help them over the rough places, there's few enough
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Speaker 1: would smile here or ever enter into his rest when
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Speaker 1: the long night comes. Go along, Sid, Mary, Tom, take
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Speaker 1: yourselves off. You've hindered me long enough. The children left
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Speaker 1: for school, and the old lady to call on missus
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Speaker 1: Harper and vanquish her realism with Tom's marvelous dream. Sid
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Speaker 1: had better judgment than to utter the thought that was
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Speaker 1: in his mind as he left the house. It was
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Speaker 1: this pretty thin, as long as a dream as that,
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Speaker 1: without any mistakes in it. What a hero Tom was become.
7:02
Speaker 1: Now he did not go skipping and prancing, but moved
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Speaker 1: with a dignified swagger, as became a pirate who felt
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Speaker 1: that the public eye was on him, and indeed it was.
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Speaker 1: He tried not to seem to see the looks or
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Speaker 1: hear the remarks as he passed along, but they were
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Speaker 1: food and drink to him. Smaller boys than himself flocked
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Speaker 1: at his heels, as proud to be seen with him,
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Speaker 1: and tolerated by him, as if he had been the
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Speaker 1: drummer at the head of a procession or the elephant
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Speaker 1: leading a menagerie into town. Boys of his own size
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Speaker 1: pretended not to know he had been away at all,
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Speaker 1: but they were consuming with envy. Nevertheless, they would have
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Speaker 1: given anything to have had that swarthy, sun tanned skin
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Speaker 1: of his and his glittering notoriety, and Tom would not
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Speaker 1: have parted with either for a circus. At school, the
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Speaker 1: children made so much of him and of Joe, and
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Speaker 1: delivered such eloquent admiration from their eyes that the two
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Speaker 1: heroes were not long in becoming insufferably stuck up. They
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Speaker 1: began to tell their adventures to hungry listeners, but they
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Speaker 1: only began it was not a thing likely to have
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Speaker 1: an end with imaginations like theirs to furnish material. And finally,
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Speaker 1: when they got out their pipes and went serenely puffing around,
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Speaker 1: the very summit of glory was reached. Tom decided that
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Speaker 1: he could be independent of Becky Thatcher. Now glory was sufficient.
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Speaker 1: He would live for glory. Now that he was distinguished.
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Speaker 1: Maybe she would be wanting to make up well, letter
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Speaker 1: she should see that he could be as indifferent as
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Speaker 1: some other people. Presently she arrived, Tom pretended not to
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Speaker 1: see her. He moved away and joined a group of
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Speaker 1: boys and girls and began to talk. Soon he observed
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Speaker 1: that she was tripping gaily back and forth, with flushed
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Speaker 1: face and dancing eyes, pretending to be busy chasing schoolmates,
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Speaker 1: and screaming with laughter when she made a capture. But
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Speaker 1: he noticed that she always made her captures in his vicinity,
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Speaker 1: and that she seemed to cast a conscious eye in
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Speaker 1: his direction. At such times too, it gratified all the
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Speaker 1: vicious vanity that was in him, and so instead of
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Speaker 1: winning him, it only set him up the more and
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Speaker 1: made him the more diligent to avoid betraying that he
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Speaker 1: knew she was about. Presently, she gave over skylarking and
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Speaker 1: moved irresolutely about, sighing once or twice, and glancing furtively
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Speaker 1: and wistfully toward Tom. Then she observed that now Tom
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Speaker 1: was talking more particularly to Amy Lawrence than to any
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Speaker 1: one else. She felt a sharp pang and grew disturbed
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Speaker 1: and uneasy. At once. She tried to go away, but
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Speaker 1: her feet were treacherous and carried her to the group. Instead.
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Speaker 1: She said to a girl almost at Tom's elbow, with
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Speaker 1: sham vivacity, Why Mary Austin, you bad girl? Why didn't
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Speaker 1: you come to Sunday School? I did come. Didn't you
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Speaker 1: see me? Why no? Did you? Where did you sit?
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Speaker 1: I was in Miss Peter's class, where I always go?
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Speaker 1: I saw you? Did you? Why it's funny I didn't
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Speaker 1: see you. I wanted to tell you about the picnic.
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Speaker 1: Oh that's jolly, who's going to give it? My Ma's
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Speaker 1: going to let me have one? Oh, Goody. I hope
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Speaker 1: she'll let me come. Well, she will. The picnic's for me.
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Speaker 1: She'll let anybody come that I want, and I want you.
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Speaker 1: That's ever so nice. When is it going to be
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Speaker 1: by and bye? Maybe about vacation? Oh? Won't it be fun?
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Speaker 1: You going to have all the girls and boys? Yes,
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Speaker 1: everyone that's friends to me or wants to be. And
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Speaker 1: she glanced ever so furtively at Tom, But he talked
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Speaker 1: right along to Amy Lawrence about the terrible storm on
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Speaker 1: the island and how the lightning tore the great sycamore
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Speaker 1: tree all to flinders while he was standing within three
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Speaker 1: feet of it. Oh may I come, said Gracie Miller. Yes,
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Speaker 1: and me said Sally Rogers. Yes, and me too, said
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Speaker 1: Susie Harper. And Joe Yes, and so on, with clapping
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Speaker 1: of joyful hands, till all the group had begged for
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Speaker 1: invitations but Tom and Amy. Then Tom turned coolly away,
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Speaker 1: still talking, and took Amy with him. Becky's lips trembled
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Speaker 1: and the tears came to her eyes. She hid these
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Speaker 1: signs with a forced gayety and went on un chattering.
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Speaker 1: But the life had gone out of the picnic now,
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Speaker 1: and out of everything else. She got away as soon
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Speaker 1: as she could, and hid herself and had what her
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Speaker 1: sex call a good cry. Then she sat moody with
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Speaker 1: wounded pride till the bell rang. She roused up now
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Speaker 1: with a vindictive cast in her eye, and gave her
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Speaker 1: plaited tails a shake, and said she knew what she'd do.
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Speaker 1: At recess. Tom continued his flirtation with Amy with jubilant
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Speaker 1: self satisfaction, and he kept drifting about to find Becky
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Speaker 1: and lacerate her with the performance. At last he spied her,
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Speaker 1: but there was a sudden falling of his mercury. She
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Speaker 1: was sitting cozily on a little bench behind the schoolhouse,
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Speaker 1: looking at a picture book with Alfred Temple, and so
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Speaker 1: absorbed were they, and their heads so close together over
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Speaker 1: the book, that they did not seem to be conscious
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Speaker 1: of anything in the world besides Jealousy ran red hot
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Speaker 1: through Tom's veins. He began to hate himself for throwing
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Speaker 1: away the chance Becky had offered for a reconciliation. He
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Speaker 1: called himself a fool, and all the hard names could
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Speaker 1: think of. He wanted to cry with vexation. Amy chatted
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Speaker 1: happily along as they walked for her heart was singing,
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Speaker 1: but Tom's tongue had lost its function. He did not
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Speaker 1: hear what Amy was saying, and whenever she paused expectantly,
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Speaker 1: he could only stammer an awkward assent, which was as
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Speaker 1: often misplaced as otherwise. He kept drifting to the rear
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Speaker 1: of the schoolhouse again and again to sear his eyeballs
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Speaker 1: with a hateful spectacle. There he could not help it,
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Speaker 1: and it maddened him to see as he thought he
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Speaker 1: saw that Becky Thatcher never once suspected that he was
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Speaker 1: even in the land of the living. But she did see, nevertheless,
12:35
Speaker 1: and she knew she was winning her fight, too, and
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Speaker 1: was glad to see him suffer as she had suffered.
12:41
Speaker 1: Amy's happy prattle became intolerable. Tom hinted at things he
12:45
Speaker 1: had to attend to, things that must be done, and
12:48
Speaker 1: time was fleeting, but in vain the girl chirped on.
12:52
Speaker 1: Tom thought, oh, hang her, Ain't I ever going to
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Speaker 1: get rid of her? At last? He must be attending
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Speaker 1: to those things. And she said artlessly that she would
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Speaker 1: be round when school left out, and he hastened away,
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Speaker 1: hating her for it. Any other boy, Tom thought, grating
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Speaker 1: his teeth, any boy in the whole town. But that
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Speaker 1: Saint Louis Smarty, that thinks he dresses so fine and
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Speaker 1: is aristocracy. Oh all right, I licked you the first
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Speaker 1: day you ever saw this town, mister, and I'll lick
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Speaker 1: you again. You just wait till I catch you out.
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Speaker 1: I'll just take and and he went through the motions
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Speaker 1: of thrashing an imaginary boy, pummeling the air and kicking
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Speaker 1: and gouging. Oh you do, do you? You holler enough? Do you? Now?
13:30
Speaker 1: Then let that learn you? And so the imaginary flogging
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Speaker 1: was finished. To his satisfaction. Tom fled home at noon.
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Speaker 1: His conscience could not endure any more of Amy's grateful happiness,
13:41
Speaker 1: and his jealousy could bear no more of the other distress.
13:44
Speaker 1: Becky resumed her picture inspections with Alfred, but as the
13:47
Speaker 1: minutes dragged along and no Tom came to suffer, her
13:51
Speaker 1: triumph began to cloud, and she lost interest. Gravity and
13:55
Speaker 1: absent mindedness followed, and then melancholy. Two or three times
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Speaker 1: she pricked up her ear at a footstep, but it
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Speaker 1: was a false hope. No Tom came at last. She
14:05
Speaker 1: grew entirely miserable and wished she hadn't carried it so far.
14:09
Speaker 1: When poor Alfred, seeing that he was losing her, he
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Speaker 1: did not know how, kept exclaiming, Oh, here's a jolly one,
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Speaker 1: look at this. She lost patience at last and said, oh,
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Speaker 1: don't bother me. I don't care for them, and burst
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Speaker 1: into tears and got up and walked away. Alfred dropped
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Speaker 1: alongside and was going to try to comfort her, but
14:28
Speaker 1: she said, go away and leave me alone, can't you?
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Speaker 1: I hate you. So the boy halted, wondering what he
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Speaker 1: could have done for she had said she would look
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Speaker 1: at pictures all through the nooning, and she walked on crying.
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Speaker 1: Then Alfred went musing into the deserted schoolhouse. He was
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Speaker 1: humiliated and angry. He easily guessed his way to the truth.
14:48
Speaker 1: The girl had simply made a convenience of him to
14:51
Speaker 1: vent her spite. Upon Tom's sawyer. He was far from
14:54
Speaker 1: hating Tom the less. When this thought occurred to him,
14:57
Speaker 1: he wished there was some way to get that boy
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Speaker 1: into trouble without much risk to himself. Tom's spelling book
15:03
Speaker 1: fell under his eye. Here was his opportunity. He gratefully
15:06
Speaker 1: opened to the lesson for the afternoon and poured ink
15:09
Speaker 1: upon the page Becky, glancing in at a window behind
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Speaker 1: him at the moment, saw the act and moved on
15:15
Speaker 1: without discovering herself. She started homeward, now intending to find
15:19
Speaker 1: Tom and tell him Tom would be thankful and their
15:22
Speaker 1: troubles would be healed. Before she was half way home, however,
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Speaker 1: she had changed her mind. The thought of Tom's treatment
15:28
Speaker 1: of her when she was talking about her picnic came
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Speaker 1: scorching back and filled her with shame. She resolved to
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Speaker 1: let him get whipped on the damaged spelling book's account,
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Speaker 1: and to hate him forever into the bargain. End of
15:41
Speaker 1: chapter eighteen, Chapter nineteen, The cruelty of I didn't think.
15:48
Speaker 1: Tom arrived at home in a dreary mood, and the
15:51
Speaker 1: first thing his aunt said to him showed him that
15:53
Speaker 1: he had brought his sorrows to an unpromising market. Tom,
15:57
Speaker 1: I've a notion to skin you alive, Auntie. What have
16:00
Speaker 1: I done? Well? You've done enough here. I go over
16:04
Speaker 1: to Serenity Harper like an old softy, expecting I'm going
16:07
Speaker 1: to make her believe all that rubbage about that dream.
16:10
Speaker 1: When lo and behold you. She'd found out from Joe
16:13
Speaker 1: that you was over here, and heard all the talk
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Speaker 1: we had that night. Tom, I don't know what is
16:18
Speaker 1: to become of a boy that will act like that.
16:20
Speaker 1: It makes me feel so bad to think that you
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Speaker 1: could let me go to Serenity Harper and make such
16:24
Speaker 1: a fool of myself and never say a word. This
16:28
Speaker 1: was a new aspect of the thing. His smartness of
16:30
Speaker 1: the morning had seemed to Tom a good joke before,
16:33
Speaker 1: and very ingenious. It merely looked mean and shabby. Now.
16:37
Speaker 1: He hung his head and could not think of anything
16:39
Speaker 1: to say for a moment. Then he said, Auntie, I
16:42
Speaker 1: wished I hadn't done it, But I didn't think. Oh child,
16:47
Speaker 1: you never think. You never think of anything but your
16:50
Speaker 1: own selfishness. You could think to come all the way
16:52
Speaker 1: over here from Jackson's Island in the night to laugh
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Speaker 1: at our troubles, and you could think to fool me
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Speaker 1: with a lie about a dream, but you could never
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Speaker 1: think to pity us and save us from sorrow. Addie,
17:03
Speaker 1: I know now it was mean, but I didn't mean
17:06
Speaker 1: it to be mean. I didn't honest, And besides, I
17:09
Speaker 1: didn't come over here to laugh at you that night.
17:11
Speaker 1: What did you come for then? It was to tell
17:14
Speaker 1: you not to be uneasy about us because we hadn't
17:16
Speaker 1: got drowned, Tom, Tom, I would be the thankfullest soul
17:20
Speaker 1: in this world if I could believe you ever had
17:22
Speaker 1: as good a thought as that. But you know you
17:25
Speaker 1: never did, and I know it, Tom, Indeed, indeed I did. Addie,
17:29
Speaker 1: I wish I may never stir if I didn't. Oh, Tom,
17:32
Speaker 1: don't lie. Don't do it. It only makes things a
17:35
Speaker 1: hundred times worse. It ain't a lie, Attie, it's the truth.
17:38
Speaker 1: I wanted to keep you from grieving. That was all
17:40
Speaker 1: that made me come. I'd give the whole world to
17:43
Speaker 1: believe that. It would cover up a power of sins. Tom,
17:47
Speaker 1: I'd most be glad you'd run off and acted so bad.
17:51
Speaker 1: But it ain't reasonable, because why didn't you tell me? Child?
17:56
Speaker 1: Why you see? When you got to talking about the funeral,
17:59
Speaker 1: I just got all full of the idea of our
18:01
Speaker 1: coming and hiding in the church, and I couldn't somehow
18:03
Speaker 1: bear to spoil it. So I just put the bark
18:06
Speaker 1: back in my pocket and kept mum, what bark the
18:10
Speaker 1: bark I wrote on to tell you we'd gone pirating.
18:13
Speaker 1: I wish now you'd waked up when I kissed you,
18:15
Speaker 1: I do honest. The hard lines in his aunt's face relaxed,
18:19
Speaker 1: and a sudden tenderness dawned in her eyes. Did you
18:22
Speaker 1: kiss me, Tom? Why? Yes I did. Are you sure
18:26
Speaker 1: you did, Tom? Why? Yes, I did? Aunt, he's certain sure?
18:30
Speaker 1: What did you kiss me for? Tom? Because I loved
18:33
Speaker 1: you so and you laid there moaning, and I was
18:35
Speaker 1: so sorry. The words sounded like truth. The old lady
18:39
Speaker 1: could not hide a tremor in her voice when she said,
18:41
Speaker 1: kiss me again, Tom, and be off with you to
18:44
Speaker 1: school now, and don't bother me anymore. The moment he
18:47
Speaker 1: was gone, she ran to a closet and got out
18:50
Speaker 1: the ruin of a jacket which Tom had gone pirating in.
18:53
Speaker 1: Then she stopped with it in her hand and said
18:55
Speaker 1: to herself, No, I don't dare poor boy. I reckon
18:59
Speaker 1: he'd lied about it. But it's a blessed, blessed lie.
19:03
Speaker 1: There's such a comfort come from it. I hope the Lord.
19:06
Speaker 1: I know the Lord will forgive him because it was
19:08
Speaker 1: such good heartedness and in to tell it. But I
19:10
Speaker 1: don't want to find out it's a lie. I won't look.
19:14
Speaker 1: She put the jacket away and stood by, musing a minute.
19:17
Speaker 1: Twice she put out her hand to take the garment again,
19:19
Speaker 1: and twice she refrained. Once more she ventured, and this
19:22
Speaker 1: time she fortified herself with a thought, it's a good lie.
19:26
Speaker 1: It's a good lie. I won't let it grieve me,
19:29
Speaker 1: so she sought the jacket pocket. A moment later, she
19:32
Speaker 1: was reading Tom's piece of bark through the flowing tears
19:35
Speaker 1: and saying, I forgive the boy now if he'd committed
19:38
Speaker 1: a million sins. End of chapter nineteen. Chapter twenty, Tom
19:46
Speaker 1: takes Becky's punishment. There was something about Aunt Polly's manner
19:51
Speaker 1: when she kissed Tom that swept away his low spirits
19:53
Speaker 1: and made him light hearted and happy again. He started
19:56
Speaker 1: to school and had the luck of coming upon Becky
19:59
Speaker 1: Thatcher at the head of Meadow Lane. His mood always
20:02
Speaker 1: determined his manner. Without a moment's hesitation, he ran to
20:05
Speaker 1: her and said, I acted mighty mean to day, Becky,
20:08
Speaker 1: and I'm so sorry. I won't ever ever do that
20:11
Speaker 1: way again as long as I ever live. Please make up,
20:14
Speaker 1: won't you? The girl stopped and looked at him, scornfully
20:17
Speaker 1: in the face. I'll thank you to keep yourself to yourself,
20:20
Speaker 1: mister Thomas sawyer, I'll never speak to you again. She
20:24
Speaker 1: tossed her head and passed on. Tom was so stunned
20:27
Speaker 1: that he had not even presence of mind enough to
20:29
Speaker 1: say who cares, miss Smarty, until the right time to
20:32
Speaker 1: say it had gone by, so he said nothing, But
20:35
Speaker 1: he was in a fine rage. Nevertheless, he moped into
20:38
Speaker 1: the schoolyard, wishing she were a boy, and imagining how
20:41
Speaker 1: he would trounce her if she were. He presently encountered
20:44
Speaker 1: her and delivered a stinging remark as he passed. She
20:47
Speaker 1: hurled one in return, and the angry breach was complete.
20:50
Speaker 1: It seemed to Becky, in her hot resentment, that she
20:52
Speaker 1: could hardly wait for school to take in. She was
20:55
Speaker 1: so impatient to see Tom flogged for the injured spelling book.
20:58
Speaker 1: If she had had any ling dering notion of exposing
21:01
Speaker 1: to Alfred Temple, Tom's offensive fling had driven it entirely away.
21:06
Speaker 1: Poor girl, she did not know how fast she was
21:08
Speaker 1: nearing trouble herself. The master mister Dobbins had reached middle
21:12
Speaker 1: age with an unsatisfied ambition. The darling of his desires
21:16
Speaker 1: was to be a doctor, but poverty had decreed that
21:19
Speaker 1: he should be nothing higher than a village schoolmaster. Every
21:22
Speaker 1: day he took a mysterious book out of his desk
21:25
Speaker 1: and absorbed himself in it. At times when no classes
21:27
Speaker 1: were reciting, he kept that book under lock and key.
21:31
Speaker 1: There was not an urchin in school, but was perishing
21:33
Speaker 1: to have a glimpse of it, But the chance never came.
21:36
Speaker 1: Every boy and girl had a theory about the nature
21:39
Speaker 1: of that book, but no two theories were alike, and
21:42
Speaker 1: there was no way of getting at the facts in
21:43
Speaker 1: the case. Now, as Becky was passing by the desk,
21:46
Speaker 1: which stood near the door, she noticed that the key
21:49
Speaker 1: was in the lock. It was a precious moment. She
21:52
Speaker 1: glanced around, found herself alone, and the next instant she
21:55
Speaker 1: had the book in her hands. The title page, Professor
21:58
Speaker 1: Somebody's Anatomy, carried no information to her mind, so she
22:01
Speaker 1: began to turn the leaves she came at once upon
22:04
Speaker 1: a handsomely engraved and colored frontispiece a human figure stark naked.
22:09
Speaker 1: At that moment, a shadow fell on the page, and
22:12
Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer stepped in at the door and caught the
22:14
Speaker 1: glimpse of the picture. Becky snatched at the book to
22:17
Speaker 1: close it and had the hard luck to tear the
22:19
Speaker 1: pictured plate half down the middle. She thrust the volumes
22:23
Speaker 1: into the desk, turned the key, and burst out, crying
22:25
Speaker 1: with shame and vexation. Tom Sawyer, you are just as
22:28
Speaker 1: mean as you can be to sneak up on a
22:30
Speaker 1: person and look at what they're looking at? How could
22:33
Speaker 1: I know you was looking at anything? You ought to
22:35
Speaker 1: be ashamed of yourself, Tom Sawyer, you know you're going
22:38
Speaker 1: to tell on me and I I what shall I do?
22:40
Speaker 1: What shall I do? I'll be whipped and I never
22:43
Speaker 1: was whipped in school. Then she stamped her little foot
22:46
Speaker 1: and said, be so mean. If you want to I
22:49
Speaker 1: know something that's going to happen you just wait and
22:51
Speaker 1: you'll see hateful, hateful, hateful, And she flung out of
22:55
Speaker 1: the house with a new explosion of crying. Tom stood still,
22:59
Speaker 1: rather flustered by this onslaught. Presently, he said to himself,
23:03
Speaker 1: what a curious kind of a fool? A girl is
23:06
Speaker 1: never been licked in school? Shucks? What's a lickin' that's
23:10
Speaker 1: just like a girl there's so thin skinned and chicken hearted. Well,
23:13
Speaker 1: of course I ain't going to tell Old Dobbins on
23:16
Speaker 1: this little fool. Because there's other ways of getting even
23:19
Speaker 1: on her that ain't so mean. But what of it?
23:22
Speaker 1: Old Dobbins will ask who it was toward his book.
23:24
Speaker 1: Nobody'll answer. Then he'll do just the way he always does.
23:28
Speaker 1: Ask first one, then t'other, and when he comes to
23:30
Speaker 1: the right girl, he'll know it without any telling. Girls
23:34
Speaker 1: faces always tell on them. They ain't got any backbone.
23:37
Speaker 1: She'll get licked. Well, it's a kind of a tight
23:40
Speaker 1: place for Becky thatcher, because there ain't any way out
23:42
Speaker 1: of it. Tom conned the thing a moment longer, and
23:45
Speaker 1: then added, all right, though she'd like to see me
23:48
Speaker 1: in such a fix, let her sweat it out. Tom
23:51
Speaker 1: joined a mob of skylarking scholars outside. In a few moments,
23:55
Speaker 1: the master arrived in school took in. Tom did not
23:58
Speaker 1: feel a strong interest in his studies. Every time he
24:00
Speaker 1: stole a glance at the girl's side of the room,
24:02
Speaker 1: Becky's face troubled him. Considering all things, he did not
24:05
Speaker 1: want to pity her, and yet it was all he
24:08
Speaker 1: could do to help it. He could get up no
24:10
Speaker 1: exaltation that was really worthy the name. Presently, the spelling
24:14
Speaker 1: book discovery was made, and Tom's mind was entirely full
24:17
Speaker 1: of his own matters. For a while. After that, Becky
24:19
Speaker 1: roused up from her lethargy of distress and showed good
24:22
Speaker 1: interest in the proceedings. She did not expect that Tom
24:25
Speaker 1: could get out of his trouble by denying that he
24:27
Speaker 1: spilt the ink on the book himself, and she was right.
24:31
Speaker 1: The denial only seemed to make the thing worse for Tom.
24:34
Speaker 1: Becky supposed she would be glad of that, and she
24:36
Speaker 1: tried to believe she was glad of it, but she
24:38
Speaker 1: found she was not certain. When the worst came to
24:42
Speaker 1: the worst, she had an impulse to get up and
24:44
Speaker 1: tell on Alfred Temple, but she made an effort and
24:47
Speaker 1: forced herself to keep still, because, said she to herself,
24:51
Speaker 1: he'll tell about me tearing the book. Sure, I wouldn't
24:54
Speaker 1: say a word. Not to save his life. Tom took
24:57
Speaker 1: his whipping and went back to his seat, not at
25:00
Speaker 1: all broken hearted, for he thought it was possible that
25:03
Speaker 1: he had unknowingly upset the ink on the spelling book
25:05
Speaker 1: himself in some skylarking bout. He had denied it for
25:09
Speaker 1: form's sake and because it was custom, and had stuck
25:12
Speaker 1: to the denial from principle. A whole hour drifted by.
25:15
Speaker 1: The Master sat nodding in his throne. The air was
25:18
Speaker 1: drowsy with the hum of study. By and by. Mister
25:21
Speaker 1: Dobbins straightened himself up, yawned, and then unlocked his desk
25:24
Speaker 1: and reached for his book, but seemed undecided whether to
25:26
Speaker 1: take it out or leave it. Most of the pupils
25:29
Speaker 1: glanced up languidly, but there was two among them that
25:32
Speaker 1: watched his movements with intent eyes. Mister Dobbins fingered his
25:35
Speaker 1: book absently for a while, then took it out and
25:38
Speaker 1: settled himself in his chair to read. Tom shot a
25:42
Speaker 1: glance at Becky. He had seen a hunted and helpless
25:45
Speaker 1: rabbit look as she did, with a gun leveled at
25:47
Speaker 1: its head. Instantly he forgot his quarrel with her quick
25:51
Speaker 1: Something must be done done in a flash, too, But
25:53
Speaker 1: the very imminence of the emergency paralyzed his invention. Good.
25:57
Speaker 1: He had an inspiration he would run and snatch the book,
26:00
Speaker 1: spring through the door, and fly, But his resolution shook
26:03
Speaker 1: for one little instant, and the chance was lost. The
26:06
Speaker 1: Master opened the volume. If Tom only had the wasted
26:09
Speaker 1: opportunity back again too late, there was no help for Becky, now,
26:13
Speaker 1: he said. The next moment, the Master faced the school.
26:16
Speaker 1: Every eye sank under his gaze. There was that in
26:20
Speaker 1: it which smote even the innocent with fear. There was
26:23
Speaker 1: silence while one might count ten. The Master was gathering
26:26
Speaker 1: his wrath. Then he spoke, who tore this book? There
26:32
Speaker 1: was not a sound. One could have heard a pin drop.
26:35
Speaker 1: The stillness continued. The Master searched face after face for
26:40
Speaker 1: signs of guilt. Benjamin Rogers, did you tear this book?
26:44
Speaker 1: A denial? Another pause? Joseph Harper did you Another denial?
26:50
Speaker 1: Tom's uneasiness grew more and more intense unto the slow
26:53
Speaker 1: torture of these proceedings. The Master scanned the ranks of boys,
26:57
Speaker 1: considered a while, then turned to the girls. Amy Lawrence,
27:01
Speaker 1: a shake of the head, gra C. Miller the same
27:05
Speaker 1: sign Susan Harper, did you do this? Another negative? The
27:11
Speaker 1: next girl was Becky Thatcher. Tom was trembling from head
27:13
Speaker 1: to foot with excitement and a sense of hopelessness of
27:16
Speaker 1: the situation. Rebecca Thatcher. Tom glanced at her face. It
27:20
Speaker 1: was white with terror. Did you tear no? Look me
27:23
Speaker 1: in the face? Her hands rose in appeal. Did you
27:27
Speaker 1: tear this book. A thought shot like lightning through Tom's brain.
27:31
Speaker 1: He sprang to his feet and shouted, I done it.
27:34
Speaker 1: The school stared in perplexity at this incredible folly. Tom
27:38
Speaker 1: stood a moment to gather his dismembered faculties, and when
27:42
Speaker 1: he stepped forward to go to his punishment, the surprise,
27:45
Speaker 1: the gratitude, the adoration that shone upon him out of
27:48
Speaker 1: poor Becky's eyes seemed pay enough for a hundred floggings.
27:52
Speaker 1: Inspired by the splendor of his own act, he took
27:54
Speaker 1: without an outcry, the most merciless flaying that even mister
27:57
Speaker 1: Dobbins had ever administered, and also received with indifference. The
28:01
Speaker 1: added cruelty of a command to remain two hours after
28:04
Speaker 1: school should be dismissed, for he knew who would wait
28:08
Speaker 1: for him outside till his captivity was done, and not
28:11
Speaker 1: count the tedious time as loss either. Tom went to
28:15
Speaker 1: bed that night planning vengeance against Alfred Temple, for with
28:18
Speaker 1: shame and repentance Becky had told him all not forgetting
28:22
Speaker 1: her own treachery. But even the longing for vengeance had
28:25
Speaker 1: to give way soon to pleasanter musings, and he fell
28:29
Speaker 1: asleep at last with Becky's latest words, lingering dreamily in
28:32
Speaker 1: his ear, Tom, how could you be so noble? End
28:38
Speaker 1: of Chapter twenty