B. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Highlights

Every time I let him off, my conscience does — location: 138

hurt me so, and every time I hit him my old heart most breaks. — location: 138

hookey — location: 140

Tom's younger brother (or rather half-brother) Sid was already through with his part of the work (picking up chips), for he was a quiet boy, and had no adventurous, trouble-some ways. — location: 144

"Tom, it was middling warm in school, warn't it?" "Yes'm." "Powerful warm, warn't it?" "Yes'm." "Didn't you want to go in a-swimming, Tom?" — location: 149

A bit of a scare shot through Tom—a touch of uncomfortable suspicion. He searched Aunt Polly's face, but it told him nothing. So he said: "No'm—well, not very much." The old lady reached out her hand and felt Tom's shirt, and said: "But you ain't too warm now, though." And it flattered her to reflect that she had discovered that the shirt was dry without anybody knowing that that was what she had in her mind. But in spite of her, Tom knew where the wind lay, now. So he forestalled what might be the next move: "Some of us pumped on our heads—mine's damp yet. See?" Aunt Polly was vexed to think she had overlooked that bit of circumstantial evidence, and missed a trick. Then she had a new inspiration: "Tom, you didn't have to undo your shirt collar where I sewed it, to pump on your head, did you? Unbutton your jacket!" The trouble vanished out of Tom's face. He opened his jacket. His shirt collar was securely sewed. "Bother! Well, go 'long with you. I'd made sure you'd played hookey and been a-swimming. But I forgive ye, Tom. I reckon you're a kind of a singed cat, as the saying is—better'n you look. THIS time." She was half sorry her sagacity had miscarried, and half glad that Tom had stumbled into obedient conduct for once. But Sidney said: "Well, now, if I didn't think you sewed his collar with white thread, but it's black." "Why, I did sew it with white! Tom!" But Tom did not wait for the rest. As he went out at the door he said: "Siddy, I'll lick you for that." — location: 151

He was not the Model Boy of the village. He knew the model boy very well though—and loathed him. — location: 166

cloth roundabout was new and natty, and so were his pantaloons. He had shoes on—and — location: 177

lick — location: 180

"You're a coward and a pup. I'll tell my big brother on you, and he can thrash you with his little finger, and I'll make him do it, too." "What do I care for your big brother? I've got a brother that's bigger than he is—and what's more, he can throw him over that fence, too." [Both — location: 198

brothers were imaginary.] — location: 200

"'lowed" to "lay" — location: 216

ambuscade, — location: 218

melancholy — location: 225

Life to him seemed hollow, and existence but a burden. Sighing, he dipped his brush and passed it along the topmost plank; repeated the operation; did it — location: 226

again; compared the insignificant whitewashed streak with the far-reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence, and sat down on a tree-box discouraged. — location: 227

Bringing water from the town pump had always been hateful work in Tom's eyes, before, but now it did not strike him so. — location: 228

Jim was only human—this attraction was too much for him. He put down his pail, took the white alley, and bent over the toe with absorbing — location: 240

interest while the bandage was being unwound. In another moment he was flying down the street with his pail and a tingling rear, Tom was whitewashing with vigor, and Aunt Polly was retiring from the field with a slipper in her hand and triumph in her eye. — location: 241

alacrity — location: 281

being a poor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in wealth. — location: 286

like the writer of this book, — location: 294

And while she closed with a happy Scriptural flourish, he "hooked" a doughnut. — location: 314

tranquil — location: 422

and went to work to "get his verses." Sid had learned his lesson days before. — location: 425

Barlow, — location: 440

counterfeited — location: 441

Tom contrived to scarify the cupboard with it, and was arranging to begin on the bureau, when he was called off to dress for Sunday-school. — location: 442

effeminate, — location: 454

He was fully as uncomfortable as he looked; — location: 457

blighted; — location: 458

tallow, — location: 459

edifice — location: 465

proceeded to his seat and started a quarrel with the first boy that — location: 470

came handy. — location: 471

How many of my readers would have the industry and application to memorize two thousand verses, even for a Dore Bible? — location: 477

And yet Mary had acquired two Bibles in this way—it — location: 477

cravat — location: 492

august — location: 512

dupes — location: 536

Let us draw the curtain of charity over the rest of the scene. — location: 560

her—Tom being placed next the aisle, in order that he might be as far away from the open window and the seductive outside summer scenes as possible. — location: 565

and last of all came the Model Boy, Willie Mufferson, taking as heedful care of his mother as if she were cut glass. — location: 572

The boys all hated him, he was so good. And besides, he had been "thrown up to them" so much. — location: 573

Tom had no handkerchief, and he looked upon boys — location: 575

who had as snobs. — location: 575

There was once a church choir that was not ill-bred, but I have forgotten where it was, now. It was a great many years ago, and I can scarcely remember anything about it, but I think it was in some foreign country. — location: 578

He was regarded as a wonderful reader. At church "sociables" he was always called upon to read poetry; and when he was through, the ladies would lift up their hands and let them fall helplessly in their laps, and "wall" their eyes, and shake their heads, as much as to say, "Words cannot express it; it is too beautiful, TOO beautiful for this mortal earth." — location: 584

doom—a queer custom which is still kept up in America, even in cities, away here in this age of abundant newspapers. Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it. — location: 588

discourse — location: 634

mirth, — location: 635

Monday morning always found him so—because it began another week's slow suffering in school. — location: 642

He generally began that day with wishing he had had no intervening holiday, it made the going into captivity and fetters again so much more odious. — location: 643

"No—never mind. It'll be over by and by, maybe. Don't call anybody." — location: 658

"Hours. Ouch! Oh, don't stir so, Sid, you'll kill me." — location: 659

expectorate — location: 682

Huckleberry Finn, son of the town drunkard. Huckleberry was cordially hated and dreaded by all the mothers of the town, because he was idle and lawless and vulgar and bad—and because all their children admired him so, and delighted in his forbidden society, and wished they dared to be like him. Tom was like the rest of the respectable boys, in that he envied Huckleberry his gaudy outcast condition, and was under strict orders not to play with him. So he played with him every time he got a chance. Huckleberry was always dressed in the cast-off clothes of full-grown men, and they were in perennial bloom and fluttering with rags. His hat was a vast ruin with a wide crescent lopped out of its brim; his coat, when he wore one, hung nearly to his heels and had the rearward buttons far down the back; but one suspender supported his trousers; the seat of the trousers bagged low and contained nothing, the fringed legs dragged in the dirt when not rolled up. — location: 685

Huckleberry came and went, at his own free will. He slept on doorsteps in fine weather and in empty hogsheads in wet; he did not have to go to school or to church, or call any being master or obey anybody; he could go fishing or swimming when and where he chose, and stay as long as it suited him; nobody forbade him to fight; he could sit up as late as he pleased; he was always the first boy that went barefoot in the spring and the last to resume leather in the fall; he never had to wash, nor put on clean clothes; he could swear wonderfully. In a word, everything that goes to make life precious that boy had. So thought every harassed, hampered, respectable boy in St. Petersburg. — location: 693

"Why, he told Jeff Thatcher, and Jeff told Johnny Baker, and Johnny told Jim Hollis, and Jim told Ben Rogers, and Ben told a nigger, and the nigger told me. There now!" — location: 705

swaller — location: 713

genuwyne?" — location: 746

ferule — location: 757

abash — location: 760

hypercritical; — location: 774

ostentation — location: 794

This bosom friend was Joe Harper. The two boys were sworn friends all the week, and embattled enemies on Saturdays. — location: 805

contemplated — location: 823

wane, — location: 829

bliss. — location: 829

excess — location: 833

slathers — location: 836

smote — location: 865

andiron, — location: 868

upbraid — location: 872

zephyr — location: 906

Ah, if he could only die TEMPORARILY! — location: 913

frivolity — location: 916

No, he would be a soldier, and return after long years, all war-worn and illustrious. No—better still, he would join the Indians, and hunt buffaloes and go on the warpath in the mountain ranges and the trackless great plains of the Far West, and away in the future come back a great chief, bristling with feathers, hideous with paint, and prance into Sunday-school, some drowsy summer morning, with a blood-curdling war-whoop, and sear the eyeballs of all his companions with unappeasable envy. But no, there was something gaudier even than this. He would be a pirate! That was it! NOW — location: 918

his future lay plain before him, and glowing with unimaginable splendor. How his name would fill the world, and make people shudder! How gloriously he would go plowing the dancing seas, in his long, low, black-hulled racer, the Spirit of the Storm, with his grisly flag flying at the fore! And at the zenith of his fame, how he would suddenly appear at the old village and stalk into church, brown and weather-beaten, in his black velvet doublet and trunks, his great jack-boots, his crimson sash, his belt bristling with horse-pistols, his crime-rusted cutlass at his side, his slouch hat with waving plumes, his black flag unfurled, with the skull and — location: 921

crossbones on it, and hear with swelling ecstasy the whisperings, "It's Tom Sawyer the Pirate!—the Black Avenger of the Spanish Main!" — location: 926

Yes, it was settled; his career was determined. — location: 928

cogitating. — location: 934

caitiff — location: 957

accoutrements, — location: 972

And now the tiresome chirping of a cricket that no human ingenuity could locate, began. — location: 981

caterwauling. — location: 985

pervading — location: 996

pard!" — location: 1037

stolid — location: 1058

"Sh! What's that?" he whispered. "Sounds like—like hogs grunting. No—it's somebody snoring, Tom." — location: 1120

This final feather broke the camel's back. — location: 1155

(the public are not slow in the matter of sifting evidence and arriving at a verdict), — location: 1163

stolid — location: 1172

impudence!" — location: 1175

ostentatiously — location: 1176

And when he had finished and still stood alive and whole, their wavering impulse to break their oath and save the poor betrayed prisoner's life faded and vanished away, for plainly this miscreant had sold himself to Satan and it would be fatal to meddle with the property of such a power as that. — location: 1186

plausibly — location: 1205

coroner — location: 1209

aversion — location: 1211

Every day or two, during this time of sorrow, Tom watched his opportunity and went to the little grated jail-window and smuggled such small comforts through to the "murderer" as he could get hold of. — location: 1212

The villagers had a strong desire to — location: 1215

tar-and-feather Injun Joe and ride him on a rail, for body-snatching, but so formidable was his character that nobody could be found who was willing to take the lead in the matter, so it was dropped. — location: 1216

Villagers act brave but don't take action

She — location: 1224

was ill. What if she should die! — location: 1224

infatuated — location: 1226

new-fangled — location: 1226

inveterate — location: 1227

experimenter — location: 1227

ailing, — location: 1228

phrenological — location: 1229

ventilation, — location: 1229

notwithstanding — location: 1239

hearse. — location: 1240

consternation. — location: 1242

clandestinely. — location: 1250

avariciously, — location: 1252

apprehensive. — location: 1264

light; what was cruelty to a cat MIGHT be cruelty to a boy, too. — location: 1271

perceptible — location: 1273

Tom reached school ahead of time. — location: 1275

latterly. — location: 1276

accosted — location: 1279

Then one more frock passed in at the gate, and Tom's heart gave a great bound. The next instant he was out, and "going on" like an Indian; yelling, laughing, chasing boys, jumping over the fence at risk of life and limb, throwing handsprings, standing on his head—doing all the heroic things he could conceive of, and keeping a furtive eye out, all the while, to see if Becky Thatcher was noticing. — location: 1281

exploits — location: 1285

vicinity; — location: 1285

Tom's cheeks burned. He gathered himself up and sneaked off, crushed and crestfallen. — location: 1288

He was a forsaken, friendless boy, he said; nobody loved him; when they found out what they had driven him to, perhaps they would be sorry; he had tried to do right and get along, but they would not let him; since nothing would do them but to be rid of him, let it be so; and let them blame HIM for the consequences—why shouldn't they? What right had the friendless to complain? Yes, they had forced him to it at last: he would lead a life of crime. There was no choice. — location: 1316

soul's sworn comrade, — location: 1322

As the two boys walked sorrowing along, they made a new compact to stand by each other and be brothers and never separate till death relieved them of their troubles. Then they began to lay their plans. Joe was for being a hermit, and living on crusts in a remote cave, and dying, some time, of cold and want and grief; but after listening to Tom, he conceded that there were some conspicuous advantages about a life of crime, and so he consented to be a pirate. — location: 1329

The Terror of the Seas had brought a side of bacon, — location: 1348

That was a wise thought; matches were hardly known there in that day. — location: 1350

As the boys steadily and monotonously drove the raft toward mid-stream it was no doubt understood that these orders were given only for "style," and were not intended to mean anything in particular. — location: 1358

pathos — location: 1403

They said their prayers inwardly, and lying down, since there was nobody there with authority to make them kneel and recite aloud; in truth, they had a mind not to say them at all, but they were afraid to proceed to such lengths as that, lest they might call down a sudden and special thunderbolt from heaven. — location: 1407

So they inwardly resolved that so long as they remained in the business, their piracies should not again be sullied with the crime of stealing. — location: 1414

"That's it!" said Huck; "they done that last summer, when Bill Turner got drownded; they shoot a cannon over the water, and that makes him come up to the top. Yes, and they take loaves of bread and put quicksilver in 'em and set 'em afloat, and wherever there's anybody that's drownded, they'll float right there and stop." — location: 1473

"Oh, it ain't the bread, so much," said Tom; "I reckon it's mostly what they SAY over it before they start it out." — location: 1475

notoriety — location: 1485

jubilant — location: 1486

vanity — location: 1486

grandeur — location: 1486

derision! — location: 1492

inundation; — location: 1642

soliloquized: — location: 1707

soliloquized — location: 1824

hendered — location: 1828

notoriety; — location: 1835

irresolutely — location: 1846

retribution — location: 2008

worsted. — location: 2009

convalescent. — location: 2107

forbearance — location: 2133

incongruous — location: 2134

auspicious. — location: 2554

vestibule, — location: 3031

laudations. — location: 3181

magnanimous — location: 3212

insipid — location: 3221