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SATURDAY morning was come , and all the summer world was bright and fresh , and brimming with life . There was a song in every heart ; and if the heart was young the music issued at the lips . There was cheer in every face and a spring in every step . The locust -trees were in bloom and the fragrance of the blossoms filled the air . Cardiff Hill , beyond the village and above it , was green with vegetation and it lay just far enough away to seem a Delectable Land , dreamy , reposeful , and inviting .
1
Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of whitewash and a long -handled brush . He surveyed the fence , and all gladness left him and a deep mel - ancholy settled down upon his spirit . Thirty yards of board fence nine feet high . 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 again ; compared the in - significant whitewashed streak with the far -reaching continent of unwhitewashed fence , and sat down on a tree -box discouraged . Jim came skipping out at the gate with a tin pail , and singing Buffalo Gals . Bringing water from the town pump had always been hateful work in Tom 's eyes , before , but now it did not strike him so . He remembered that there was company at the pump . White , mulatto , and negro boys and girls were always there waiting their turns , resting , trading playthings , quarrelling , fighting , skylarking . And he remembered that although the pump was only a hundred and fifty yards off , Jim never got back with a bucket of water under an hour -- and even then some - body generally had to go after him . Tom said :
2
"Say , Jim , I'll fetch the water if you 'll whitewash some ."
3
Jim shook his head and said :
4
"Can 't, Mars Tom . Ole missis , she tole me I got to go an ' git dis water an ' not stop foolin ' roun ' wid anybody . She say she spec ' Mars Tom gwine to ax me to whitewash , an ' so she tole me go 'long an ' 'tend to my own business -- she 'lowed SHE 'D 'tend to de whitewashin '."
5
"Oh , never you mind what she said , Jim . That 's the way she always talks . Gimme the bucket -- I won 't be gone only a a minute . SHE won 't ever know ."
6
"Oh , I dasn 't, Mars Tom . Ole missis she 'd take an ' tar de head off 'n me . 'Deed she would ."
7
"SHE ! She never licks anybody -- whacks 'em over the head with her thimble -- and who cares for that , I'd like to know . She talks awful , but talk don 't hurt -- anyways it don 't if she don 't cry . Jim , I'll give you a marvel . I'll give you a white alley !"
8
Jim began to waver .
9
"White alley , Jim ! And it 's a bully taw ."
10
"My ! Dat 's a mighty gay marvel , I tell you ! But Mars Tom I's powerful 'fraid ole missis --"
11
"And besides , if you will I'll show you my sore toe ."
12
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 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 .
13
But Tom 's energy did not last . He began to think of the fun he had planned for this day , and his sorrows multiplied . Soon the free boys would come tripping along on all sorts of delicious expeditions , and they would make a world of fun of him for having to work -- the very thought of it burnt him like fire . He got out his worldly wealth and examined it -- bits of toys , marbles , and trash ; enough to buy an exchange of WORK , maybe , but not half enough to buy so much as half an hour of pure freedom . So he returned his straitened means to his pocket , and gave up the idea of trying to buy the boys . At this dark and hopeless moment an inspiration burst upon him ! Nothing less than a great , magnificent inspiration .
14
He took up his brush and went tranquilly to work . Ben Rogers hove in sight presently -- the very boy , of all boys , whose ridicule he had been dreading . Ben 's gait was the hop -skip -and -jump -- proof enough that his heart was light and his anticipations high . He was eating an apple , and giving a long , melodious whoop , at intervals , followed by a deep -toned ding - dong -dong , ding -dong -dong , for he was personating a steamboat . As he drew near , he slackened speed , took the middle of the street , leaned far over to star - board and rounded to ponderously and with laborious pomp and circumstance -- for he was personating the Big Missouri , and considered himself to be drawing nine feet of water . He was boat and captain and engine -bells combined , so he had to imagine himself standing on his own hurricane -deck giving the orders and executing them :
15
"Stop her , sir ! Ting -a-ling -ling !" The headway ran almost out , and he drew up slowly toward the sidewalk .
16
"Ship up to back ! Ting -a-ling -ling !" His arms straightened and stiffened down his sides .
17
"Set her back on the stabboard ! Ting -a-ling -ling ! Chow ! ch -chow -wow ! Chow !" His right hand , mean - time , describing stately circles -- for it was representing a forty -foot wheel .
18
"Let her go back on the labboard ! Ting -a-ling - ling ! Chow -ch -chow -chow !" The left hand began to describe circles .
19
"Stop the stabboard ! Ting -a-ling -ling ! Stop the labboard ! Come ahead on the stabboard ! Stop her ! Let your outside turn over slow ! Ting -a-ling -ling ! Chow -ow -ow ! Get out that head -line ! LIVELY now ! Come -- out with your spring -line -- what 're you about there ! Take a turn round that stump with the bight of it ! Stand by that stage , now -- let her go ! Done with the engines , sir ! Ting -a-ling -ling ! SH 'T! S'H'T! SH 'T!" (trying the gauge -cocks ).
20
Tom went on whitewashing -- paid no attention to the steamboat . Ben stared a moment and then said : "Hi -YI ! YOU 'RE up a stump , ain 't you !"
21
No answer . Tom surveyed his last touch with the eye of an artist , then he gave his brush another gentle sweep and surveyed the result , as before . Ben ranged up alongside of him . Tom 's mouth watered for the apple , but he stuck to his work . Ben said :
22
"Hello , old chap , you got to work , hey ?"
23
Tom wheeled suddenly and said :
24
"Why , it 's you , Ben ! I warn 't noticing ."
25
"Say -- I'm going in a-swimming , I am . Don 't you wish you could ? But of course you 'd druther WORK -- wouldn 't you ? Course you would !"
26
Tom contemplated the boy a bit , and said :
27
"What do you call work ?"
28
"Why , ain 't THAT work ?"
29
Tom resumed his whitewashing , and answered care - lessly :
30
"Well , maybe it is , and maybe it ain 't. All I know , is , it suits Tom Sawyer ."
31
"Oh come , now , you don 't mean to let on that you LIKE it ?"
32
The brush continued to move .
33
"Like it ? Well , I don 't see why I oughtn 't to like it . Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day ?"
34
That put the thing in a new light . Ben stopped nibbling his apple . Tom swept his brush daintily back and forth -- stepped back to note the effect -- added a touch here and there -- criticised the effect again -- Ben watching every move and getting more and more interested , more and more absorbed . Pres - ently he said :
35
"Say , Tom , let ME whitewash a little ."
36
Tom considered , was about to consent ; but he altered his mind :
37
"No -- no -- I reckon it wouldn 't hardly 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 reckon there ain 't one boy in a thousand , maybe two thousand , that can do it the way it 's got to be done ."
38
"No -- is that so ? Oh come , now -- lemme just try . Only just a little -- I'd let YOU , if you was me , Tom ."
39
"Ben , I'd like to , honest injun ; 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 . Now don 't you see how I'm fixed ? If you was to tackle this fence and anything was to happen to it --"
40
"Oh , shucks , I'll be just as careful . Now lemme try . Say -- I'll give you the core of my apple ."
41
"Well , here -- No , Ben , now don 't. I'm afeard --"
42
"I'll give you ALL of it !"
43
Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face , but alacrity in his heart . And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the sun , the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by , dangled his legs , munched his apple , and planned the slaughter of more innocents . There was no lack of material ; boys happened along every little while ; they came to jeer , but remained to whitewash . By the time Ben was fagged out , Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for a kite , in good repair ; and when he played out , Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with -- and so on , and so on , hour after hour . And when the middle of the afternoon came , from being a poor poverty -stricken boy in the morning , Tom was literally rolling in wealth . He had besides the things before mentioned , twelve marbles , part of a jews -harp , a piece of blue bottle -glass to look through , a spool cannon , a key that wouldn 't unlock anything , a fragment of chalk , a glass stopper of a decanter , a tin soldier , a couple of tadpoles , six fire -crackers , a kitten with only one eye , a brass door - knob , a dog -collar -- but no dog -- the handle of a knife , four pieces of orange -peel , and a dilapidated old window sash .
44
He had had a nice , good , idle time all the while -- plenty of company -- and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it ! If he hadn 't run out of whitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village .
45
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 covet a thing , it is only necessary to make the thing difficult to attain . If he had been a great and wise philosopher , like the writer of this book , he would now have comprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is OBLIGED to do , and that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do . And this would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or performing on a tread -mill is work , while rolling ten -pins or climbing Mont Blanc is only amusement . There are wealthy gentlemen in England who drive four -horse passenger - coaches twenty or thirty miles on a daily line , in the summer , because the privilege costs them considerable money ; but if they were offered wages for the service , that would turn it into work and then they would resign .
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