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

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  Speaker 1: To my wife. This book is affectionately dedicated preface. Most
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  Speaker 1: of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred. One
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  Speaker 1: or two were experiences of my own, the rest those
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  Speaker 1: of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is
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  Speaker 1: drawn from life Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual.
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  Speaker 1: He is a combination of the characteristics of three boys
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  Speaker 1: whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order
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  Speaker 1: of architecture. The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent
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  Speaker 1: among children and slaves in the West at the period
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  Speaker 1: of this story, that is to say, thirty or forty
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  Speaker 1: years ago. Although my book is intended mainly for the
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  Speaker 1: entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not
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  Speaker 1: be shunned by men and women on that account. For
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  Speaker 1: part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly
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  Speaker 1: remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of
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  Speaker 1: how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer
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  Speaker 1: enterprises they sometimes engaged in. The author Hartford, eighteen seventy six,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter one, Tom no answer, Tom, no answer? What's gone
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  Speaker 1: with that boy? I wonder you? Tom no answer. The
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  Speaker 1: old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them
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  Speaker 1: about the room. Then she put them up and looked
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  Speaker 1: out under them. She seldom or never looked through them,
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  Speaker 1: for so small a thing as a boy. They were
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  Speaker 1: her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were
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  Speaker 1: built for style, not service. She could have seen through
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  Speaker 1: a pair of stove lids just as well. She looked
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  Speaker 1: perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but
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  Speaker 1: still loud enough for the furniture to hear. Well, I
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  Speaker 1: lay if I get hold of you, I'll She did
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  Speaker 1: not finish, for by this time she was bending down
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  Speaker 1: and punching under the bed with a broom, and so
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  Speaker 1: she needed breath to punctuate the punches with She resurrected
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  Speaker 1: nothing but the cat. I never see the beat of
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  Speaker 1: that boy. She went to the open door and stood
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  Speaker 1: in it and looked out among the tomato vines and
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  Speaker 1: Jimpson weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom. So she
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  Speaker 1: lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance,
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  Speaker 1: and shouted, you tom. There was a slight noise behind her,
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  Speaker 1: and she turned just in time to seize a small
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  Speaker 1: boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.
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  Speaker 1: There I might have thought of that closet. What you
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  Speaker 1: been doing in there? Nothing? Nothing? Look at your hands
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  Speaker 1: and look at your mouth. What is that truck? I
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  Speaker 1: don't know, Aunt, well, I know it's jam. That's what
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  Speaker 1: it is. Forty times I've said, if you didn't let
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  Speaker 1: that jam alone, I'll skin you. Hand me that switch.
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  Speaker 1: The switch hovered in the air. The peril was desperate.
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  Speaker 1: My look behind you want the old lady whirled round
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  Speaker 1: and snatched her skirts out of danger. The lad fled
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  Speaker 1: on the instant, scrambled up the high board fence and
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  Speaker 1: disappeared over it. His aunt Polly stood surprised a moment,
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  Speaker 1: and then broke into a gentle laugh. Hang that boy,
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  Speaker 1: can't I never learn anything? Ain't he played me tricks
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  Speaker 1: enough like that for me to be looking out for
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  Speaker 1: him by this time? But old fools is the biggest
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  Speaker 1: fools there is. Can't learn an old dog new tricks,
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  Speaker 1: as the saying is, But my goodness, he never plays
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  Speaker 1: them alike. Two days and how is a body to
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  Speaker 1: know what's comin'? He peers to know just how long
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  Speaker 1: he can torment me before I get my dander up.
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  Speaker 1: And he knows if he can make out to put
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  Speaker 1: me off for a minute, or make me laugh. It's
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  Speaker 1: all down again, and I can't hit him a lick.
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  Speaker 1: I ain't doing my duty by that boy. An that's
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  Speaker 1: the Lord's truth. Goodness knows. Spare the rod an, smile
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  Speaker 1: the child, as the good book says. I'm a layin'
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  Speaker 1: up sin an sufferin a for us boat. I know
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  Speaker 1: he's full of the old scratch, but laws of me,
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  Speaker 1: he's my own dead sister's boy, poor thing, and I
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  Speaker 1: ain't got the heart to lash him. Somehow, every time
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  Speaker 1: I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so
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  Speaker 1: and every time I hit him, my old heart most breaks. Well. Well,
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  Speaker 1: a man that is born of a woman is a
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  Speaker 1: few days and full of trouble, as the scripture says,
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  Speaker 1: and I reckon it. So he'll play hooky this evening.
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  Speaker 1: That's Southwestern for afternoon, and I'll just be obleeged to
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  Speaker 1: make him work tomorrow to punish him. It's mighty hard
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  Speaker 1: to make him work Saturdays when all the boys is
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  Speaker 1: having holiday. But he hates work more than he hates
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  Speaker 1: anything else. And I've got to do some of my
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  Speaker 1: duty by him, or I'll be the ruination of the child.
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  Speaker 1: Tom did play hooky, and he had a very good time.
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  Speaker 1: He got back home barely in season to help Jim.
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  Speaker 1: The small colored boy saw next day's wood and split
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  Speaker 1: the kindling before supper. At least he there in time
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  Speaker 1: to tell his adventures to Jim. While Jim did three
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  Speaker 1: fourths of the work, Tom's younger brother, or rather half brother,
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  Speaker 1: Sid was already through with his part of the work,
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  Speaker 1: picking up chips, for he was a quiet boy and
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  Speaker 1: had no adventurous troublesome ways. While Tom was eating his
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  Speaker 1: supper and stealing sugar as opportunity offered, Aunt Polly asked
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  Speaker 1: him questions that were full of guile and very deep,
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  Speaker 1: for she wanted to trap him into damaging revealments. Like
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  Speaker 1: many other simple hearted souls. It was her pet vanity
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  Speaker 1: to believe she was endowed with a talent for dark
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  Speaker 1: and mysterious diplomacy, and she loved to contemplate her most
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  Speaker 1: transparent devices as marvels of low cunning, said she Tom,
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  Speaker 1: it was middling warm in school, wasn't it? Yes? Un?
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  Speaker 1: Powerful warm, wasn't it yes? Un? Didn't you want to
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  Speaker 1: go in a swimming Tom? A bit of a scare
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  Speaker 1: shot through Tom a touch of uncomfortable suspicion. He searched
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  Speaker 1: Aunt polly face, but it told him nothing, so he said, known, well,
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  Speaker 1: not very much. The old lady reached out her hand
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  Speaker 1: and felt Tom's shirt and said, but you ain't too
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  Speaker 1: warm now though, And it flattered her to reflect that
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  Speaker 1: she had discovered that the shirt was dry without anybody
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  Speaker 1: knowing that that was what she had in her mind.
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  Speaker 1: But in spite of her, Tom knew where the wind
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  Speaker 1: lay now, so he forestalled what might be the next move.
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  Speaker 1: Some of us pumped on our heads. Mine's damp. Yet see,
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  Speaker 1: Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that
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  Speaker 1: bit of circumstantial evidence and missed a trick. Then she
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  Speaker 1: had a new inspiration. Tom, you didn't have to undo
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  Speaker 1: your shirt collar where I sewed it to pump on
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  Speaker 1: your head? Did you unbutton your jacket? The trouble vanished
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  Speaker 1: out of Tom's face. He opened his jacket, his shirt
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  Speaker 1: collar was securely sewed. Bother, Well, go along with you.
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  Speaker 1: I'd made sure you'd played cooky and been a swimmin'.
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  Speaker 1: But I forgive you, Tom, I reckon you're a kind
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  Speaker 1: of singed cat. As the saying is better'n you look
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  Speaker 1: this time, she was half sorry her sagacity had miscarried,
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  Speaker 1: and half glad that Tom had stumbled into obedient conduct
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  Speaker 1: for once. But Sydney said, well, now, if I didn't
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  Speaker 1: think you sewed his collar with white thread, but it's black,
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  Speaker 1: why I did sow it with white? Tom? But Tom
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  Speaker 1: did not wait for the rest. As he went out
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  Speaker 1: the door, he said, Siddy, I'll lick you for that.
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  Speaker 1: In a safe place, Tom examined two large needles which
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  Speaker 1: were thrust into the lapels of his jacket and had
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  Speaker 1: thread bound about them. One needle carried white thread and
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  Speaker 1: the other black. He said, she'd never noticed if it
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  Speaker 1: hadn't been for Sid confound it. Sometimes she sows it
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  Speaker 1: with white, and sometimes she sows it with black. I
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  Speaker 1: wish to Jimminy she'd stick to one or t'other. I
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  Speaker 1: can't keep the run of em. But I bet I'll
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  Speaker 1: learn Sid for that, I'll learn him. He was not
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  Speaker 1: the model boy of the village. He knew the model
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  Speaker 1: boy very well, though, and loathed him. Within two minutes
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  Speaker 1: or even less, he had forgotten all his troubles, not
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  Speaker 1: because his troubles were one whit less heavy and bitter
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  Speaker 1: to him than a man's are to a man. But
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  Speaker 1: because a new and powerful interest bore them down and
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  Speaker 1: drove them out of his mind for the time, just
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  Speaker 1: as men's misfortunes are forgotten in the excitement of new enterprises.
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  Speaker 1: This new interest was a valued novelty in whistling, which
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  Speaker 1: he had just acquired from a negro, and he was
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  Speaker 1: suffering to practice it undisturbed. It consisted in a peculiar
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  Speaker 1: bird like turn, a sort of liquid warble, produced by
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  Speaker 1: touching the tongue to the roof of the mouth at
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  Speaker 1: short intervals in the midst of the music. The reader
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  Speaker 1: probably remembers how to do it if he has ever
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  Speaker 1: been a boy. Diligence and attention soon gave him the
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  Speaker 1: knack of it, and he strode down the street with
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  Speaker 1: his mouth full of harmony, in his soul full of gratitude.
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  Speaker 1: He felt much as an astronomer feels who has discovered
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  Speaker 1: a new planet. No doubt, as far as strong, deep,
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  Speaker 1: unalloyed pleasure is concerned, the advantage was with a boy,
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  Speaker 1: not the astronomer. The summer evenings were long, it was
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  Speaker 1: not dark, yet presently Tom checked his whistle a stranger
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  Speaker 1: was before him a boy, a shade larger than himself,
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  Speaker 1: A newcomer of any age or either sex, was an
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  Speaker 1: impressive curiosity in the poor, little shabby village of Saint Petersburg.
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  Speaker 1: This boy was well dressed, too well dressed on a
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  Speaker 1: week day. This was simply astounding. His cap was a
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  Speaker 1: dainty thing. His close buttoned blue cloth round about was
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  Speaker 1: new and natty, and so were his pantaloons. He had
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  Speaker 1: shoes on, and it was only Friday. He even wore
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  Speaker 1: a necktie, a bright bit of ribbon. He had a
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  Speaker 1: cidified air about him that ate into Tom's vitals. The
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  Speaker 1: more Tom stared at the splendid marvel, the higher he
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  Speaker 1: turned up his nose at his finery, and the shabbier
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  Speaker 1: and shabbier his own outfit seemed to him to grow.
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  Speaker 1: Neither boy spoke. If one moved, the other moved, but
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  Speaker 1: only sidewise in a circle. They kept face to face
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  Speaker 1: and eye to eye all the time. Finally, Tom said,
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  Speaker 1: I can lick you. I'd like to see you try it. Well,
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  Speaker 1: I can't do it. No you can't either, Yes I can, No,
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  Speaker 1: you can't, I can you can't, can can't. An uncomfortable pause.
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  Speaker 1: Then Tom said, what's your name? Tisn't any of your business? Maybe?
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  Speaker 1: Well I llow, I'll make it my business. Well, why
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  Speaker 1: don't you? If you say much, I will much much
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  Speaker 1: much they are now? Oh, you think you're mighty smart,
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  Speaker 1: don't you. I could lick you with one hand tied
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  Speaker 1: behind me if I wanted to. Well, why don't you
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  Speaker 1: do it? You say you can do it? Well I
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  Speaker 1: will if you fool with me. Oh yes, I've seen
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  Speaker 1: whole families in the same fix. Smarty, You think your
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  Speaker 1: sum now don't you? Oh what a hat? You can
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  Speaker 1: lump that hat if you don't like it. I dare
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  Speaker 1: you to knock it off. And anybody that'll take a
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  Speaker 1: dare will suck eggs. You're a liar, You're another You're
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  Speaker 1: a fighting liar and doesn't take it up. Dah take
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  Speaker 1: a walk. Say if you give me much more of
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  Speaker 1: your sass, I'll take and bounce a rock off in
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  Speaker 1: your head. Oh of course you will, Well I will. Well,
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  Speaker 1: why don't you do it? Then? Why do you keep
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  Speaker 1: saying you will? For why don't you do it? It's
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  Speaker 1: because you're afraid. I ain't afraid you are. I ain't
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  Speaker 1: you are. Another pause, and more eyeing and sidling around
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  Speaker 1: each other. Presently they were shouldered to shoulder. Tom said,
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  Speaker 1: get away from me, go away yourself. I won't. I
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  Speaker 1: won't either. So they stood, each with a foot placed
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  Speaker 1: at an angle as a brace, and both shoving with
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  Speaker 1: might and main and glowering at each other with hate.
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  Speaker 1: But neither could get an advantage. After struggling till both
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  Speaker 1: were hot and flushed, each relaxed his strain with watchful caution,
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  Speaker 1: and Tom said, you're a coward and a pup. I'll
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  Speaker 1: tell my big brother on you, and he can thrash
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  Speaker 1: you with his little finger, and I'll make him do
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  Speaker 1: it too. What do I care for your big brother.
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  Speaker 1: I've got a brother that's bigger than he is, and
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  Speaker 1: what's more, he can throw him over that fence too.
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  Speaker 1: Both brothers were imaginary. That's a lie, yours saying so
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  Speaker 1: doesn't make it. So Tom drew a line in the
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  Speaker 1: dust with his big toe and said, I dare you
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  Speaker 1: to step over that, and I'll lick you till you
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  Speaker 1: can't stand up. Anybody that'll take a dare will steal sheep.
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  Speaker 1: The new boy stepped over promptly and said Now you
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  Speaker 1: said you'd do it. Now, let's see you do it.
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  Speaker 1: Don't you crowd me? Now you'd better look out. Well,
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  Speaker 1: you said you'd do it, Why don't you do it?
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  Speaker 1: By jingo for two cents, I will do it. The
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  Speaker 1: new boy took two broad coppers out of his pocket
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  Speaker 1: and held them out with derision. Tom struck them to
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  Speaker 1: the ground. In an instant, both boys were rolling and
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  Speaker 1: tumbling in the dirt, gripped together like cats, and for
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  Speaker 1: the space of a minute they tugged and tore at
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  Speaker 1: each other's hair and clothes, punched and scratched each other's noses,
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  Speaker 1: and covered themselves with dust and glory. Presently, the confusion
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  Speaker 1: took form, and through the fog of battle, Tom appeared,
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  Speaker 1: seated astride the new boy and pounding him with his fists.
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  Speaker 1: Holler enough, said he The boy only struggled to free himself.
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  Speaker 1: He was crying mainly from rage. Holler nuf, and the
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  Speaker 1: pounding went on. At last, the stranger got out a
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  Speaker 1: smothered nuff, and Tom let him up and said, now
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  Speaker 1: that'll learn. You better look out who you're fooling with
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  Speaker 1: next time. The new boy went off, brushing the dust
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  Speaker 1: from his clothes, sobbing, snuffling, and occasionally looking back and
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  Speaker 1: shaking his head and threatening what he would do to
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  Speaker 1: Tom the next time he caught him out, to which
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  Speaker 1: Tom responded with jeers and started off in a high feather,
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  Speaker 1: And as soon as his back was turned, the new
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  Speaker 1: boy snatched up a stone through it and hid him
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  Speaker 1: between the shoulders, and then turned tail and ran like
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  Speaker 1: an antelope. Tom chased the trader home and thus found
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  Speaker 1: out where he lived. He then held a position at
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  Speaker 1: the gate for some time, daring the enemy to come outside,
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  Speaker 1: but the enemy only made faces at him through the
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  Speaker 1: window and declined. At last, the enemy's mother appeared and
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  Speaker 1: called Tom a bad, vicious, vulgar child, and ordered him away.
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  Speaker 1: So he went away, but he said he lowed to
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  Speaker 1: lay for that boy. He got home pretty late that night,
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  Speaker 1: and when he climbed cautiously in at the window, he
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  Speaker 1: uncovered an ambuscade in the person of his aunt, and
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: when she saw the state his clothes were in her
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  Speaker 1: resolution to turn his Saturday holiday into captivity at hard
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  Speaker 1: labor became adamantine in its firmness. Chapter two, The Glorious Whitewasher.
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  Speaker 1: Saturday morning was come and all the summer world was
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  Speaker 1: bright and fresh and brimming with life. There was a
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  Speaker 1: song in every heart, and if the heart was young,
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: and the music issued at the lips, there was cheer
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  Speaker 1: in every face, and a spring in every step. The
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  Speaker 1: locust trees were in bloom, and the fragrance of the
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  Speaker 1: blossoms filled the air. Cardiff Hill, beyond the village and
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  Speaker 1: above it was green with vegetation, and it lay just
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  Speaker 1: far enough away to seem a delectable land, dreamy, reposeful,
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  Speaker 1: and inviting. Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket
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  Speaker 1: of whitewash and a long handled brush. He surveyed the fence,
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: and all gladness left him, and a deep melancholy settled
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  Speaker 1: down upon his spirit. Thirty yards of board fence nine
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  Speaker 1: feet high. Life to him seemed hollow, an existence, but
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  Speaker 1: a burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: along the topmost plank, repeated the operation, did it again,
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  Speaker 1: compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with a far reaching continent
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  Speaker 1: of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree box. Discouraged.
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: Jim came skipping out at the gate with a tin
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  Speaker 1: pail and singing gals. Bringing water from the town pump
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: had always been hateful work in Tom's eyes before, but
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  Speaker 1: now it did not strike him. So he remembered that
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  Speaker 1: there was company at the pump, White, Mulatto and Negro
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  Speaker 1: boys and girls were always there waiting their turns, resting,
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  Speaker 1: trading playthings, quarreling, fighting, skylarking, And he remembered that although
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  Speaker 1: the pump was only one hundred and fifty yards off,
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  Speaker 1: Jim never got back with a bucket of water under
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  Speaker 1: an hour, and even then somebody generally had to go
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  Speaker 1: after him. Tom said, say, Jim, I'll fetch the water
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  Speaker 1: if you'll whitewash some Jim shook his head and said, can't.
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  Speaker 1: Mars Tom. Old missus, she told me I got to
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  Speaker 1: go and get this water and stop fooling around with anybody.
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: She say. She spect Mars Tom going to axe me
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  Speaker 1: to whitewash, and so she told me to go long
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  Speaker 1: and tend to my own business. She allowed, she'd tend
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  Speaker 1: to whitewashing. Oh, never mind what she said, Jim, that's
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  Speaker 1: the way she all talks. Give me the bucket. I
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  Speaker 1: won't be gone only a minute. She won't ever know,
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  Speaker 1: oh I dazzen' mars Tom, Oh missus, she'd taken tard
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  Speaker 1: to head off in me, deed, she would. She she
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  Speaker 1: never licks anybody, whacks him over the head with her thimble,
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  Speaker 1: and who cares for that? I'd like to know. She
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: talks awful, but talk don't hurt anyways, it toned. If
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  Speaker 1: she don't cry, Jim, I'll give you a marvel. I'll
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  Speaker 1: give you a white alley. Jim began to waver white alley, Jim,
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  Speaker 1: And it's a bully taw my, that's a mighty gay marvel,
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  Speaker 1: I tell you. But Mars Tom, I's powerful, fraid, oh missus.
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  Speaker 1: And besides, if you will, I'll show you my sore toe.
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: Jim was only human. This attraction was too much for him.
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  Speaker 1: He put down his pail, took the white alley, and
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: bent over the toe with absorbing interest. While the bandage
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  Speaker 1: was being unwound. In another moment, he was flying down
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  Speaker 1: the street with his pail and a tingling rear. Tom
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  Speaker 1: was whitewashing with vigor, and Aunt Polly was retiring from
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  Speaker 1: the field with a slipper in her hand and triumph
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  Speaker 1: in her eye. But Tom's energy did not last He
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  Speaker 1: began to think of the fun he had planned for
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: this day, and his sorrows multiplied. Soon, the free boys
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: would come tripping along on all sorts of delicious expeditions,
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: and they would make a world of fun of him
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: for having to work. The very thought of it burnt
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: him like fire. He got out his worldly wealth and
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: examined it. Bits of toys, marbles, and trash. Enough to
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: buy an exchange of work, maybe, but not half enough
• 18:38
  Speaker 1: to buy so much as half an hour of pure freedom.
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: So he returned his straightened means to his pocket and
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: gave up the idea of trying to buy the boys.
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: At this dark and hopeless moment, an inspiration burst upon him,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: nothing less than a great, magnificent inspiration. He took up
• 18:55
  Speaker 1: his brush and went tranquility to work. Ben rogers Hove
• 18:58
  Speaker 1: in sight, presently the very boy of all boys whose
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: ridicule he had been dreading. Ben's gait was the hop,
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: skip and jump, proof enough that his heart was light
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: and his anticipations high. He was eating an apple and
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: giving a long, melodious whoop at intervals, followed by a
• 19:17
  Speaker 1: deep toned ding dong dong, ding dong dong. For he
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: was personating a steamboat. As he drew near, he slackened speed,
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: took the middle of the road, leaned far over to starboard,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: and rounded too ponderously and with laborious pomp and circumstance,
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: for he was personating the Big Missouri and considered himself
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: to be drawing nine feet of water. He was boat
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: and captain and engine bells combined, so he had to
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: imagine himself standing on his own hurricane deck, giving the
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: orders and executing them. Stop her, Sir, Dingalingling. The headway
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: ran almost out, and he drew up slowly towards the sidewalk,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: ship up to back dingalingling. His arms straightened and stiffened
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: down his sides. Set her back on the starboard, tingle
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: lingling chow chow chow chow. His right hand, meantime, described
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: stately circles, for it was representing a forty foot wheel.
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: Let her go back on the larboard, ting a lingling
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: ch chow chow chow. The left hand began to describe circles.
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: Stop the stobbard, tingle ingling, stop the larboard, come ahead
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: on the stobboard, stop her, let her outside, turn her
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: over slow tingling chow ch chow chow. Get out that
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: headline lively. Now come come out of there with your
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: spring line. What are you bout there? Take up a
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: turn that stump with the bright of it, stand by
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: that stage. Now let let her go. Done with the
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: engine sir tingle ling ling shit st trying the gage cocks.
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: Tom went on whitewashing, paid no attention to the steamboat.
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: Ben stared a moment and then said, Hi, ye you're
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: up stump, ain't you no answer? Tom surveyed his last
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: touch with the eye of an artist. Then he gave
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result as before.
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: Ben ranged up alongside of him. Tom's mouth watered for
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: the apple, but he stuck to his work. Ben said hello,
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: old chap, you got to work, eh. Tom wheeled suddenly
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: and said, why it's you Ben? I warn't noticing say
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: I'm going in a swimming' i am. Don't you wish
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: you could? But of course you'd rather work, wouldn't you?
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Course you would. Tom contemplated the boy a bit and said,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: what do you call work? Why ain't that work? Tom
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: resumed his whitewashing and answered carelessly, well, maybe it is,
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: and maybe it ain't all I know? Is it suits?
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Tom Sawyer? Oh, come now, you don't mean to let
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: on that you like that? The brush continued to move
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: like it. Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: of fence every day? Let put the thing in a
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept his
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: brush daintily back and forth, stepped back to note the effect,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: added a touch here and there, criticized the effect again.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested,
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: more and more absorbed. Presently, he said, say Tom, let
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: me whitewash a little. Tom considered, was about to consent,
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: but he altered his mind. No, No, I reckon, it
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: wouldn't hardly do Ben. You see, Aunt Polly's awful particular
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: about this fence right here on the street, you know,
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: But if it was the back fence, I wouldn't mind,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: and she wouldn't. Yes, she's awful particular about this fence.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: It's got to be done very careful. I reckon. There
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: ain't one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: can do it the way it's got to be done. No,
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: is that so? Oh? Come, now, let me just try,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: only just a little. I'd let you if you was me, Tom, Ben,
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: I'd like to honest engine, but Aunt Polly Well Jim
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: wanted to do it, but she wouldn't let him. Sid
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: wanted to do it, and she wouldn't let Sid. Now,
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: don't you see how I'm fixed? If you was to
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: tackle this fence and anything was to happen to it,
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: Oh shocks, I'll be just as careful. Now let me try. Say,
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: I'll give you the core my apple. Well here, no, no, Ben, No, now,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: don't I'm afeared. I'll give you all of it. Tom
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: gave up the brush with reluctance in his face but
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: alacrity in his heart. And while the late steamer Big
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Missouri worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: more innocence. There was no lack of material. Boys happened
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: along every little while. They came to jeer, but remained
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: to whitewash. By the time Ben was fagged out, Tom
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for a
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: kite in good repair, and when he played out, Johnny
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: to swing it with, and so on and so on,
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: hour after hour, and when the middle of the afternoon
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: came from being a poor, poverty stricken boy in the morning,
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: Tom was literally rolling in wealth. He had beside the
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: things before mentioned, twelve marbles, part of a jew's harp,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: a piece of blue bottle glass to look through, a
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: spool cannon, a key that wouldn't unlock anything, a fragment
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: of chalk, a glass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier,
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: a couple of tadpoles, six firecrackers, a kitten with only
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: one eye, a brass door knob, a dog collar but
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: no dog, the handle of a knife, four pieces of
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: orange peel, and a dilapidated old window sash. He had
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: had a nice, good idle time all the while, plenty
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: of company, and the fence had had three coats of
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: whitewash on it. If he hadn't run out of whitewash,
• 25:01
  Speaker 1: he would have bankrupted every boy in the village. Tom
• 25:04
  Speaker 1: said to himself that it was not such a hollow world,
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: after all, he had discovered a great law of human
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: action without knowing it, namely that in order to make
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: a man or boy covet a thing, it is only
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: necessary to make the thing difficult to attain. If he
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: had been a great and wise philosopher, like the writer
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: of this book, he would now have comprehended that work
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: consists of whatever a body is obliged to do, and
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: that play consists of whatever a body is not obliged
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: to do. And this would help him to understand why
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: constructing artificial flowers or performing on a treadmill is work,
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: while rolling ten pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four horse
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: passenger coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable money.
• 25:59
  Speaker 1: But if they were offered wages for the service, that
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: would turn it into work, and then they would resign.
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: The boy mused a while over the substantial change which
• 26:09
  Speaker 1: had taken place in his worldly circumstances, and then wended
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: toward headquarters to report the end of Chapter two