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When Tom’s turned to go, the new boy took a stone, threw it, hit him Tom between the shoulders and then ran away as fast as he could. Tom chased him home, and waited at the gate for some time, inviting the enemy to come outside. At last the enemy’s mother appeared, and called Tom a bad, evil child.
Tom got home rather late that night, and when he climbed in through the window, he was caught by his aunt immediately. When she saw the state of his clothes her resolution to turn his Saturday holiday into captivity at hard labor became set in stone.
Chapter II
Saturday morning came, and all the summer world was bright and fresh. There was a song in every heart and a smile on every face.
But Tom was not very happy when he appeared in the street with a bucket of whitewash and a brush with a long handle. When he looked at the fence, so long and high, he felt depressed. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the top plank; repeated the motion; did it again; compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the enormous continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down in the shade, discouraged.
Then he saw Jim, a slave boy, who was ru
“I say, Jim, I’ll bring the water if you whitewash a part of the fence.”
Jim shook his head and said:
“I can’t, master Tom. Your aunt said you had to do it all. She’ll be angry if she learns that I helped you.”
“Oh, never you mind what she said, Jim. That’s the way she always talks. Gimme the bucket—I will be gone only a minute. She won’t ever know.”
When the boys noticed Aunt Polly coming out of the house Jim ran away with his bucket and Tom got back to whitewashing[6]. But his energy did not last. He began to think of the fun he had pla
At this dark and hopeless moment he found a way out.
He took up his brush and went to work. Ben Rogers—the very boy, of all boys, whose ridicule Tom had been dreading—was walking along the street eating an apple. From time to time he produced melodious sounds: ding-dong-dong, ding-dong-dong, for he was impersonating a steamboat[7]. As he came closer, he called:
“Tom!”
No answer. Tom was whitewashing the fence; he surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist, then gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result, as before. Tom’s mouth watered for the apple, but he continued working. Ben said:
“Hello, old chap!”
Tom turned to Ben.
“Why, it’s you, Ben! I didn’t notice you.”
“I’m going swimming. Don’t you wish you could? But of course you’d rather work—wouldn’t you? Course you would!”
“What do you call work?”
“Why, isn’t THAT work?”
Tom continued his whitewashing, and answered carelessly:
“Well, maybe it is, and maybe it isn’t. All I know is it suits Tom Sawyer.”
“Don’t say you LIKE it. I won’t believe you!”
The brush continued to move.
“Like it? Well, does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?’
That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped biting his apple. He was watching Tom’s every move and was getting more and more interested. At last he said:
“Tom, let ME whitewash a little.”
Tom considered it, and then said:
“If it was the back fence I wouldn’t mind and Aunt Polly wouldn’t. But it’s the front fence; it must be done very carefully. There isn’t one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it should be done.”
“Oh, let me just try. Only just a little. I’ll give you the core of my apple[8].”
Tom considered it. He said:
“No—no—It wouldn’t do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly’s awful particular about this fence—right here on the street, you know—but if it was the back fence I wouldn’t mind and _she_ wouldn’t. Yes, she’s awful particular about this fence; it’s got to be done very careful; I think there ain’t one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it the way it’s got to be done.”
“No—is that so? Oh come, now—lemme just try. Only just a little.”
“Ben, I’d like to, but Aunt Polly—well, Jim wanted to do it, but she wouldn’t let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn’t let Sid. If you do a bad job—”
“I’ll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say—I’ll give you the core of my apple.”
“No, Ben, I’m afraid—”
“I’ll give you ALL of it!”
Tom gave the brush to Ben with reluctance in his face, but cheerfulness in his heart . And while the boy worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, ate his apple, and pla
He had had a nice, good, time, plenty of company—and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it[9].
Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want something, it is only necessary to make it difficult to obtain.
Chapter III
Tom came to the living-room which was their bedroom, breakfast-room, dining-room, and library at the same time. Aunt Polly was sitting by an open window. She was sure that Tom had left long ago, and she was surprised at seeing him.
“May I go and play now, aunt?” he asked.
“What, already? How much have you done?”
“It’s all done, aunt.”
“Tom, don’t lie to me—I can’t bear it.”
“I ain’t, aunt; it is all done.”
Aunt Polly went out to see for herself. When she found the whole fence whitewashed thoroughly, her astonishment was almost unspeakable.
She said:
“So, you can work when you decide to do so, Tom.” And then she added: “But you seldom feel like working[10]. Well, you can go and play.”
She even gave him an apple as a reward.
Tom went out of the house and hopped the fence. He walked around the block, and eventually came into an alley that led by the back of his aunt’s cow-stable. He was out of the reach of capture and punishment, and quickly walked toward the public square of the village, where two “military” companies of boys had met for conflict. Tom was General of one of these armies, Joe Harper, his friend, was the General of the other. These two great commanders sat together on the side and gave orders to others. Tom’s army won a great victory, after a long and hard-fought battle. Then the dead were counted, prisoners exchanged, the terms of the next disagreement agreed upon, and the day for the necessary battle appointed; after which the armies marched away, and Tom went towards home.
As he was passing by the house where Jeff Thatcher lived, he saw a new girl in the garden—a lovely little blue-eyed creature with yellow hair plaited into two long-tails, white summer frock and embroidered pantalettes. The fresh-crowned hero fell without firing a shot. A certain Amy Lawrence vanished out of his heart and left not even a memory of herself behind. He tried to win her over for a month; she had confessed hardly a week ago; he had been the happiest and the proudest boy in the world only seven short days, and here in one instant she had gone out of his heart like a stranger.
6
got back to whitewashing – принялся красить
7
he was impersonating a steamboat – изображал пароход
8
core of an apple – сердцевина яблока
9
fence had three coats of whitewash on it – забор был покрашен в три слоя
10
seldom feel like working – у тебя редко бывает желание работать