Tom Sawyer was a very tricky naughty boy. One day he was punished by his Aunt Polly to paint the fence. He couldn’t deny it, although he had planned all the adventures he wanted to do that day. So, he went outside and started to paint the fence. But suddenly, he got a very bright idea by seeing Ben Rogers walking past Aunt Polly’s house. Tom then put the brush down and pretended to sit calmly and observe the fence, so that Ben would stop his way because of his curiosity over Tom’s behavior. “Is your Aunt Polly put you to work?”, asked Ben. “Gosh, Ben! I didn’t know you were there. Oh, it didn’t seem like you imagined. It’s not a work, Ben. Not every day a boy gets to paint the whole fence. Pride, don’t you see?”, replied Tom. Ben watched Tom painting, stepping back every stroke or two to admire his work. “Say, let me try, Tom!”, said Ben. That was one of Tom’s tricks to avoid every punishment and started to go to find some adventures he had already planned. Fishing.
One day, it was Sunday. It meant he got to memorize Bible verses for his Sunday school. If you could recite the verses, you’d get tickets and you could become the proud owner of a plainly bound bible. Yeah, you know Tom; he wouldn’t memorize the verses just to get the prize. He would do anything to get the glory by earning it but memorizing. He then bought some tickets from the other students.
Mr. Walter, the teacher of Sunday school brought one man and one lady that day. They were Judge Thatcher and his daughter, Becky. There, Mr. Thatcher asked who had got the yellow tickets, and of course, Thomas Sawyer came forward to reach his glory. But, not that easy. Judge Thatcher asked him some questions about the verses, and Tom couldn’t tell the right answer. So, he ran away, while his friends were laughing.
The very next day, Tom was too scared to go to school. He knew he would be laughed at again because of the previous Sunday school. But, he got to go to school, he didn’t have any strong reason to stay at home. While he was walking, he met Huckleberry Finn, the son of a local troublemaker. They two had a little conversation and agreed to have some adventures in the night. Then, Tom continued to walk to the school and realized that he was late anymore. While entering the class, he saw Becky Thatcher sitting on the back chair. She was a new student.
Mr. Dobbins the teacher asked why he was late, and Tom answered honestly, “I stopped to talk to Huckleberry Finn, sir!”. Do you know what happened next? Yes, he got a punishment, and the punishment was to sit next to the girl. Tom had planned it, so he chose to sit beside Becky, back there.
While sitting next to Becky, Tom drew some pictures to make Becky curious. He did it! Becky then pushed him to show his drawing, and when she saw it, there was written, “I love you”. “Oh, you bad thing!”, Becky said as she slapped Tom’s hand. Tom knew Becky was pleased knowing it. But, as Mr. Dobbins saw it, he moved Tom to sit next to the boy.
Just on the same day, he asked Becky to meet him during school break. There, they told their feelings to each other and got engaged. But Tom made a little mistake by saying that Becky wasn’t the first girl. So, she got heartbreak, cried, and ran away. Tom tried to chase her, but suddenly he recognized that nothing should be regretted. It wasn’t what he wanted, his soul was the soul of an adventurer. He then remembered his dream of being a famous pirate who sails the whole ocean.
Tom’s pirate adventure would have to be postponed since he had to meet up with Huck Finn that night. In sleeping time, he calmly went outside the house by the window, Huck Finn had waited for him. Both the boys then walked to the place they had agreed that morning. Graveyard.
There, they sat near the elms. Firstly, it was a quiet moment, when suddenly they heard human voices. Who’s there? There were Muff Potter, Injun Joe, and Dr. Robinson. The three adults began to dig the newly buried dead man to get his organs for the doctor’s experiments. Tom and Huck are still quiet while watching the fact. The three men had a conversation and then quarreled about payment. Dr. Robinson suddenly punched Injun Joe and Muff Potter couldn’t accept it. As Muff Potter and Dr. Robinson struggled, Injun Joe drove a knife to the doctor’s chest and then put the knife into Muff’s opened hand when he was lying unconscious. Soon, Potter awoke and realized that he was holding a bloody knife and saw Dr. Robinson was killed beside him. Injun Joe told him that Potter had killed the doctor intentionally. It made Muff Potter cry, and leave the place.
Tom and Huck are speechless. They then swore over a clean shingle and put drops of their blood as an oath that they wouldn’t tell anyone about that tragedy. And, they went home quietly, continuing their daily life as normally as they could do.
At lunch, the next day, the news about Dr. Robinson’s grisly murder had spread all over the town. The citizens all went to the graveyard and there they judged Muff Potter, while Injun Joe told a lie as a witness of the murder that night. Tom and Huck stood in the back and didn’t dare to speak anything they saw.
Summer vacation was fast approaching. Tom’s days were free again. But he still felt uncomfortable remembering the case of Dr. Robinson’s murder. He then met Huck Finn to talk about that. They wanted to help Muff Potter out of jail because he was kind to them. The other day, all the citizens, including Injun Joe and Muff Potter were brought into the court. That was the right moment to help Muff Potter. Tom Sawyer bravely spoke up to the crowd as the witness of all that had happened at the graveyard. And when he said that Injun Joe killed the doctor, suddenly, Injun Joe tore the crowd and jumped out the window. He escaped. Muff Potter was set free.
Tom and Huck are still frightened by the revenge of Injun Joe. But as the time flew and there was no sign of Injun Joe, they two felt less and less scared. Tom got bored by doing almost nothing, then he met Huck again to invite him to dig for hidden treasure under a haunted house up around Cardiff Hill where there are lots of dead-limb trees.
The two boys agreed to go to the haunted house at noon, it would be too dark at night, they also knew that there wouldn’t be anyone coming to the house where a murder ever took place, even the sun shining brightly. That noon, they went inside the house, bringing their shovel, the building was quite damaged and almost no light entered.
Suddenly, Tom and Huck heard two men walk toward the door while they were walking inside the house. They hid in a place where they could still peep, but they couldn’t see the men’s faces clearly. As soon as Tom and Huck heard the voice, they both realized that it was Injun Joe in disguise. The men had stolen money and wanted to bury it somewhere in the house. What a great luck for the boys. They’re still watching. But the two men realized that there was a shovel with fresh earth on it. They began to cancel the bury of the money and they started to go out of the house. They said that they would go to “Number Two, under the cross”. The boys were disappointed and didn’t have any more clues. Desperate. Tom and Huck went home.
The next day, the two boys met again. They began to think about the “Number Two”. After a quite short discussion, they decided that it was a room number of an inn. Obviously, their ambitions of having the treasure drove them to go to find the inn. They had found it after 3 days of observation. But, as they had seen Injun Joe lying on the floor in room number two, the boys ran away and would come again the next night.
Friday morning was a glad news for Tom. Becky and her family had come back to the town. And Becky begged her Mamma to go with her friends the next day by boat to explore McDougal’s cave.
Well, Huck Finn still observing and Tom follows the journey to the cave. That night, Huck saw two men out of the inn bringing the box. Yes, the treasure box. He then followed the men. The men went to the house of Widow Douglas. That was the revenge. They wanted to revenge on Douglas by robbing his widow, or worse. By knowing that, Huck ran to the old Welshman’s cabin told everyone there about what was going on, and looked for their help. Widow Douglas was safe for now.
In the other place, Tom and Becky were trapped in the cave, while the other children had arrived home. They tried to find the way out, but what they found was they were lost. Suddenly, they heard the coming of a person, and they started a little relief. Tom decided to see it first and what he saw; Injun Joe. Tom braved himself to hit down Injun Joe from the back. He succeeded and he followed the path where Injun Joe passed by to go out. He didn’t bring Becky because she was too weak to find the way out.
Thomas Sawyer is finally out of the cave. All the parents had waited for them, but they only saw Tom. Then, Tom gave the directions to where Becky and he stayed those three nights in hunger. All was safe, and Injun Joe’s body could be brought out of the cave.
The following day, Tom tries to meet Huckleberry Finn, but Huck has a fever and is taken care of by Widow Douglas, and she would let no one visit him. When Huck was well, the two boys finally could have a meeting and Tom invited Huck to take the treasure that actually hid near the cave. They found it. “We’re rich, Huck! Say, Huck, would you mind to join the Tom Sawyer’s Gang?”, said Tom. “What a kind of Gang, Tom?”, asked Huck. “Robber, of course, and we’ll rob almost anybody”, replied Tom. “It sounds bully, Tom.”
Tom and Huck then packed the coins of treasure into bags and decided to hide them. The boys were brought to Widow Douglas’s house. There, the widow thanked Huck who had saved her from Injun Joe’s harm and wanted to give him an education, let him stay at her house. Suddenly Tom said, “Huck doesn’t need that! He’s rich! We’ve found money this morning.”, then he showed the packed coins to the crowd. The widow and Aunt Polly save Tom and Huck’s money in the bank.
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