Tom Sawyer; Chapter 1 - "Full of Mischief"

Good eveing Guys.

Tonight, I'm going to post a story about a boy named Tom Sawyer, This is an oldie story, but it's quite interesting! It's from a book entitled "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" with Longmans' Simplified English Series (Although it's "Simplified", the language itself is complicated)

There are 29 chapters, and they're:

Chapter/Title
  1. "Full Of Mischief"
  2. The Fence is Whitewashed
  3. Joys And Sorrows
  4. Tom Is Ill
  5. The Quarrel: Outlaws
  6. In The Graveyard
  7. Tom And Huck Swear An Oath
  8. Potter is Arrested
  9. Medicine
  10. Pirates
  11. On The Island
  12. What Tom Overheard
  13. Homesick: Joe "Loses His Knife"
  14. The Storm
  15. Back From The Dead
  16. Tom's "Dream": Becky's Revenge
  17. Aunt Polly's Tears
  18. "How Could You be So Noble!"
  19. Prize Day
  20. The Trial of Potter
  21. Digging For Treasure
  22. In The Haunted House
  23. "Track The Money!"
  24. The Picnic: Huck on The Track
  25. Huck Questioned: Tom and Becky Missing
  26. Lost in The Cave
  27. Saved
  28. The Treasure Found
  29. Huck "Can't Bear Those Ways"

Overview:

Tom Sawyer, a shrewd and adventurous boy, is as much at home in the respectable world of his Aunt Polly as in the self-reliant and parentless world of his friend Huck Finn. The two enjoy a series of adventures, accidentally witnessing a murder, establishing the innocence of the man wrongly accused, as well as being hunted by Injun Joe, the true murderer, eventually escaping and finding the treasure that Joe had buried. Huckleberry Finn recounts the further adventures of Huck, who runs away from a drunken and brutal father, and meets up with the escaped slave Jim. They float down the Mississippi on a raft, participating in the lives of the characters they meet, witnessing corruption, moral decay and intellectual impoverishment. Sharing so much in background and character, these two stories, the best of Twain, indisputably belong together in one volume. Though originally written as adventure stories for young people, the vivid writing provides a profound commentary on provincial American life in the mid-nineteenth century and the institution of slavery.

Chapter 1

"Full Of Mischief"

  "Tom!"
  No Answer
  "Tom!" cried Aunt Polly again.
  No Answer.
  "I wonder where that boy's gone. Tom!"
  The old lady pulled her spectacles down on her nose and looked over about the room. 
  Then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked through them for so small a thing as a boy. She seemed puzzled for a moment and said:
  "Well, if I catch you, I'll---------"
  She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and pushing the sweeping-brush under the bed. She disturbed nothing but the cat. Then she went to the open door and looked out in the garden. Tom was not in sight.
  "To-o-o-m!" she shouted.
  There was a slight noise behind her, and she turned just in time to seize a small boy and prevent him from running away.
  "What have you been doing in that cupboard?"
  "Nothing."
  "Nothing! Look at your hands, and look at your mouth. What is that stuff?"
  "I don't know. It's jam. I've told you forty times that if you touched that jam I'd skin you. Hand me that stick."
  The blow was about to fall.
  "Hi! Look behind you, aunt!"
  The old lady whirled round and snatched her skirts out of danger. The boy fled, and disappeared over the high fence of the garden. His aunt stood surprised for a moment, and then gave a gentle laugh.
  "Hang the boy! Can't I ever learn anything? Hasn't he played that trick before? He's full of mischief, but he's my own dead sister's boy, poor thing, and I hate whipping him. Every time I hit him my old heart almost breaks, and every time I forgive him my conscience blames me. He'll stay away from school this afternoon, and I'll be obliged to punish him by work on a Saturday, when all the boys are having a holiday, but he hates work more than anything else, and I must do my duty towards the child, or I'll spoil his character."
  Tom did stay away from school, and he had a very good time. He returned just in time to help Jim, the small servant boy, to saw and split the next day's firewood before supper. Tom's younger brother (or rather stepbrother), Sidney, had already finished his part of the work, for he was a quiet boy, and had no adventurous, troublesome ways.
  While Tom was eating his supper and stealing sugar every time he had an opportunity, Aunt Polly was wondering whether Tom had disobeyed her and had been to the river. She had sewn up his shirt at the neck in order to prevent him from taking it off and swimming.
  "Tom, it was quite warm in school, wasn't it? Didn't you want to go swimming?"
  "No, auntie. Well, not much. "
  "Come here. Show me your collar."
  Tom opened his coat. The neck-band of his shirt was securely sewn. 
  "Well, you may go out and play. I was sure that you had stayed away from school and been swimming."
  "I thought you sewed his collar with white thread,"said Sidney. "Now it's black."
  "Why, I did sew it with white thread! Tom!"
  But Tom did not wait for the rest. As he went out he said, "Sid, I'll give you a beating for that."
  In a safe place Tom examined two needles which were stuck in his coat. One needle had white thread wound round it and the other had black.
  "She wouldn't have noticed it, but for Sid. Hang it, sometimes she sews it with white and sometimes she sews it with black. I can't remember which she uses. I wish she'd stick to one colour. But I'll make Sid suffer for that."
  Within two minutes he had forgotten all his troubles. A stranger was standing before him, a boy a little bigger than himself. A stranger of any age, male or female, was an object of curiosity in the poor little village of St. Petersburg. This boy was well dressed, too-well dressed, on a week-day. Tom stared scornfully at the stranger's fine clothes, which seemed to make his own appear worn-out.         Neither boy spoke. Finally, Tom said:
  "I can beat you!"
  "I'd like to see you try it."
  "Well, I can do it."
  "No you can't."
  "Yes I can."
  "No you can't"
  "I can."
  "You can't."
  "Can."
  "Can't."
  An uncomfortable pause followed. Then Tom drew a line in the dust with his big toe, and said:
  "You daren't step over that. If you do, I'll beat you till you can't stand up."
  The new boy at once stepped over the line, and said:
  "Now let me see you do it."
  "You had better be careful."
  "Well, you said you'd do it. Why don't you do it?"
  "For two cents I will do it."
  The new boy took coins out of his pocket, and held them out scornfully.
  Tom Struck them to the ground.
  In an instant both boys were rolling in the dirt, fighting like cats. For a few minutes they tore at each other's hair and clothes, hit and scratched each other's noses, and covered themselves with dirt and glory. At last through the dust of battle Tom appeared, sitting on the new boy and striking him with his fists.
  "Say that you're had enough!" said Tom.
  The boy only struggled to free himself.
  "Say 'Enough!'"
  The hitting went on.
  Finally the stranger gasped "Enough!" Tom let him get up, and said, "Now that will teach you."
  The new boy went off brushing the dust from his clothes, occasionally looking back and threatening what he would do to Tom the next time he met him. Tom replied with insults. As soon as Tom's back was turned the new boy snatched up a stone, threw it, and hit Tom between the shoulders. The he ran like a deer. Tom chased the traitor home, and thus found out where he lived. He then held a position at the gate for some time, daring the enemy to come outside; but the enemy only made faces at him through the window, and refused. At last the enemy's mother appeared, and called Tom a vicious, impolite child, and ordered him to go away.
  Tom got home late that night, and when his aunt saw the state of his clothes, she became more determined than ever to make him work hard during the holiday on Saturday.
...To Be Continued

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