Summary: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

In the tiny vil­lage of St. Peters­burg, Mis­souri, young Tom Sawyer, cel­e­brat­ed for his cre­ative and play­ful char­ac­ter, lives with his Aunt Pol­ly and Sid, his half-sib­ling. His pranks lead to reper­cus­sions, such as hav­ing to paint a fence after skip­ping school and return­ing home with dirty clothes. Ini­tial­ly dis­heart­ened, Tom shrewd­ly per­suades his friends to exchange small trea­sures for the priv­i­lege of com­plet­ing his chore. These trea­sures even­tu­al­ly enable him to acquire a Bible at Sun­day school, but his tri­umph is short-lived as he mis­tak­en­ly names the first two dis­ci­ples. Con­cur­rent­ly, he devel­ops feel­ings for Becky Thatch­er, a recent arrival, but their rela­tion­ship fal­ters upon her dis­cov­ery of his pre­vi­ous engage­ment with Amy Lawrence. Short­ly after, Tom and Huck­le­ber­ry Finn, a com­pan­ion and the son of the town’s drunk­ard, wit­ness the mur­der of Dr. Robin­son by Injun Joe in a ceme­tery, prompt­ing them to flee and pledge secre­cy, yet their remorse inten­si­fies when Muff Pot­ter is wrong­ly accused and impris­oned for the crime. Seek­ing abso­lu­tion for their guilt, Tom, Huck, and anoth­er friend, Joe Harp­er, opt to enact pirates on an isle. They swift­ly real­ize that the town believes they have drowned and are search­ing for them.

How­ev­er, Tom illic­it­ly observes the chaos before orches­trat­ing a sur­prise reap­pear­ance at his own funer­al, a scheme he per­suades Joe and Huck to join. Their return elic­its excite­ment and acclaim. Upon return­ing to school, Tom regains Beck­y’s favor by shoul­der­ing the blame for a torn book. As Muff Pot­ter’s tri­al unfolds, a remorse­ful Tom pro­vides tes­ti­mo­ny against Injun Joe, lead­ing to Pot­ter’s vin­di­ca­tion and Injun Joe’s escape. With sum­mer approach­ing, Tom and Huck set off on a quest for rich­es in a haunt­ed dwelling. Unex­pect­ed­ly, they stum­ble upon Injun Joe, dis­guised as a silent Spaniard, and his disheveled con­fed­er­ate plan­ning to bury their stolen loot. Sus­pi­cions arise upon see­ing the tools of Tom and Huck, prompt­ing them to abscond with the gold rather than inter­ring it. Huck shad­ows Injun Joe, wait­ing for the oppor­tune moment to snatch the trea­sure. Con­cur­rent­ly, Tom and Becky become lost in a cav­ern dur­ing a pic­nic, lead­ing Tom to chance upon Injun Joe, who uti­lizes the cave as a refuge.

Even­tu­al­ly, Tom dis­cov­ers an exit, leav­ing Injun Joe to per­ish from hunger after being trapped in the cave. Tom and Huck sub­se­quent­ly locate the gold chest in the cave, the pro­ceeds of which are secured for them. The Wid­ow Dou­glas takes Huck under her wing, but upon his attempt­ed escape, Tom per­suades him to return by offer­ing him mem­ber­ship in his band of thieves.

Chapter 1

Aunt Pol­ly embarks on a quest to find her mis­chie­vous nephew, Tom Sawyer, whom she final­ly locates con­cealed in a pantry with jam-smeared hands. Just as she is about to mete out pun­ish­ment, Tom shouts, “Behold behind you!” Seiz­ing the fleet­ing dis­trac­tion, Tom makes a swift escape over the fence. Fol­low­ing his depar­ture, Aunt Pol­ly con­tem­plates her inef­fec­tive dis­ci­plin­ing meth­ods. Return­ing home by din­ner, Tom aids Aunt Pol­ly’s young helper, Jim, in chop­ping wood and shares his recent escapades. At din­ner, Aunt Pol­ly inter­ro­gates Tom, sus­pect­ing his swim­ming jaunt instead of attend­ing school. Tom art­ful­ly con­tends that he mere­ly refreshed him­self beneath a water pump and refrained from swim­ming, cit­ing the intact stitch­ing on his shirt col­lar from the morn­ing. How­ev­er, his half-broth­er Sid expos­es his decep­tion by point­ing out a vari­ance in the thread hue uti­lized for sewing the shirt. Incensed at Sid, Tom storms out but prompt­ly shifts focus to mas­ter­ing a nov­el whistling tech­nique. Dur­ing his aim­less stroll through the streets of St. Peters­burg, Tom encoun­ters a fresh face in town, whom he deems haughty and osten­ta­tious­ly attired. Ban­ter ensues between the two, cul­mi­nat­ing in a wrestling match, with Tom emerg­ing vic­to­ri­ous­ly and pur­su­ing the new­com­er home­ward. Tom’s day con­cludes with his return to a dis­ap­prov­ing Aunt Pol­ly, who notes his mud­died attire. Con­se­quent­ly, she decrees that he shall toil the ensu­ing day, Saturday.

Chapter 2

Aunt Pol­ly assigns Tom the respon­si­bil­i­ty of white­wash­ing the fence on a Sat­ur­day morn­ing. Encoun­ter­ing Jim, Tom endeav­ors to entice him into assist­ing with paint­ing in exchange for a mar­ble, a “white alley.” Aunt Pol­ly inter­venes, shoo­ing Jim away and leav­ing Tom alone with his duty. Short­ly after, Ben Rogers, a lad of Tom’s age, approach­es. Tom con­vinces Ben that fence paint­ing is a delight­ful endeav­or, ulti­mate­ly strik­ing a deal with him where Ben exchanges his apple as pay­ment for the priv­i­lege of paint­ing the fence. As the day pro­gress­es, every pass­ing boy ends up con­tribut­ing to the fence paint­ing, each bestow­ing Tom with a trin­ket in return. Even­tu­al­ly, with three fresh­ly coat­ed lay­ers on the fence, Tom amass­es an array of var­ied knick­knacks. Tom reflects, dis­cern­ing that the essence of desire lies in mak­ing some­thing appear ardu­ous to attain.

Chapter 3

Tak­en aback by Tom’s com­plet­ed chores, Aunt Pol­ly per­mits him leisure time. Seek­ing ret­ri­bu­tion, Tom flings dirt at Sid for betray­ing the shirt col­lar and rush­es to par­take in a make-believe bat­tle in the town square. Tom, accom­pa­nied by his com­rade Joe Harp­er, assumes lead­er­ship roles in the tri­umphant skir­mish. Home­ward bound, Tom catch­es sight of a love­ly maid­en near the Thatch­er res­i­dence, instant­ly smit­ten by her, whol­ly for­get­ting his for­mer sweet­heart, Amy Lawrence. He frit­ters away the remain­der of the day vying for atten­tion on the streets. The maid­en toss­es him a bloom, and fol­low­ing addi­tion­al antics, Tom reluc­tant­ly heads home. Dur­ing the evening meal, Sid inad­ver­tent­ly shat­ters the sug­ar bowl, with blame direct­ed towards Tom. Feel­ing aggriev­ed and melo­dra­mat­ic, he envi­sions the remorse Aunt Pol­ly would expe­ri­ence if he per­ished. He posi­tions him­self beneath the win­dow of the delight­ful maid­en, con­tem­plat­ing expir­ing there in a pitiable man­ner. Unex­pect­ed­ly, a maid dous­es him with water from a pitch­er. Drenched, Tom scur­ries home and slips into bed as Sid silent­ly observes.

Chapter 4

On Sun­day morn­ing, Tom, spurred on by his cousin Mary, reluc­tant­ly com­mits to mem­o­ry his Bible vers­es. Moti­vat­ed by a spe­cial treat promised by Mary, Tom dili­gent­ly learns the vers­es and is reward­ed with a Bar­low knife. Adorned and primed, Tom, Mary, and Sid has­ten off to Sun­day school, a sanc­tu­ary Tom detests. Pre­pared before the lessons begin, Tom, rev­el­ing in the pros­per­ous fence paint­ing scheme, exchanges his spoils for reward tick­ets. The reward mech­a­nism involves trad­ing well-recit­ed Bible vers­es for tick­ets. Accu­mu­lat­ing two thou­sand tick­ets through verse mem­o­riza­tion war­rants a Bible, to be cer­e­mo­ni­ous­ly bestowed in front of the class. On that day, Judge Thatch­er, uncle to Tom’s friend Jeff and father to the charm­ing Becky, pays a vis­it to Tom’s Sun­day school. The class, instruc­tors includ­ed, vie for the Judge’s favor, eager to impress. Ever the auda­cious one, Tom out­shines his peers. Hav­ing bartered his spoils for tick­ets, he accrues enough to secure a Bible. Mr. Wal­ters, Tom’s teacher, is tak­en aback when Tom presents his tick­ets. Despite being aware that Tom has not recit­ed the man­dat­ed vers­es, Mr. Wal­ters forges ahead with the pre­sen­ta­tion to impress Judge Thatch­er. The Judge prais­es Tom and extends an invi­ta­tion for him to show­case his skills and pur­port­ed under­stand­ing. He inquires of Tom to men­tion the ini­tial two adher­ents. As antic­i­pat­ed, Tom is unaware and hasti­ly men­tions the first two names that come to mind: David and Goliath. The sto­ry­teller pro­pos­es, “Let us close the cur­tain of benev­o­lence over the rem­nant of the scenario.”

Chapter 5

After Sun­day insti­tu­tion, the church ser­mon com­mences with a mun­dane and pro­tract­ed ora­tion. The preach­er rais­es a bib­li­cal fore­cast about the epoch of a thou­sand years, in which a young­ster will steer a lion and a lamb to rest in con­cord side by side. This notion cap­ti­vates Tom, pro­vid­ed the lion pos­es no threat. Out of tedi­um, Tom choos­es to reveal a sub­stan­tial black bee­tle, a “pinch bug,” from his appar­el. Nonethe­less, the insect pinch­es him, lead­ing him to inad­ver­tent­ly drop it in the aisle. Simul­ta­ne­ous­ly, an unre­strained poo­dle ven­tures into the church and becomes inquis­i­tive about the insect. After being pinched by the bee­tle, the dog cau­tious­ly encir­cles it before inad­ver­tent­ly sit­ting on it. The pinch­bug clings to the canine’s hindquar­ters, prompt­ing it to sprint around the church in mis­ery until its pro­pri­etor even­tu­al­ly hurls it out of a win­dow. The impromp­tu uproar dis­rupts the ser­mon and incites laugh­ter among the atten­dees. Despite los­ing his bee­tle, Tom returns home feel­ing content.

Chapter 6

On Mon­day morn­ing, Tom feigns hav­ing a “mor­ti­fied toe” in an attempt to evade school. When this strat­a­gem proves unsuc­cess­ful, he asserts a toothache, yet Aunt Pol­ly, com­posed, extracts the loose tooth and dis­patch­es him to school. En route to school, Tom encoun­ters Huck­le­ber­ry Finn, the descen­dant of the town’s ine­bri­ate. Despised and dread­ed by the town’s moth­ers, every lad, Tom includ­ed, cov­ets Huck­’s unbur­dened exis­tence. Amid a dis­course con­cern­ing wart-elim­i­nat­ing tal­is­mans, Tom dis­cov­ers Huck­’s inten­tion to trans­port a deceased feline to the grave­yard that evening, fol­low­ing a super­sti­tion that the expired cat would allure the malev­o­lent spir­it, and thus, elim­i­nate the warts. Intrigued, Tom con­sents to accom­pa­ny Huck that night, trad­ing his fresh­ly extract­ed tooth for a tick from Huck. Upon reach­ing school belat­ed­ly, Tom under­goes inter­ro­ga­tion from the ped­a­gogue. Observ­ing an unoc­cu­pied seat adjoin­ing Becky Thatch­er on the female side, Tom valiant­ly declares, “I halt­ed to con­verse with Huck­le­ber­ry Finn!” The aston­ished instruc­tor penal­izes Tom by seat­ing him next to Becky. Unfazed by the penal­ty, Tom endeav­ors to cap­ti­vate Becky with a peach and a sketch, even­tu­al­ly suc­ceed­ing in spark­ing her inter­est. Fol­low­ing a com­mit­ment from Becky to ren­dezvous dur­ing lunch, they intro­duce them­selves and Tom inscribes “I adore you” on his slate. How­ev­er, their cama­raderie is abbre­vi­at­ed when the instruc­tor pulls Tom back to the male side.

Chapter 7

The edu­ca­tor reshuf­fles the seat­ing arrange­ment, seat­ing Tom beside Joe Harp­er. Despite their ini­tial attempts to con­cen­trate, they swift­ly lose inter­est and divert them­selves with a tick game, entic­ing it with a pin to retain it on their respec­tive desk sur­face. Nev­er­the­less, a dis­pute inter­rupts their amuse­ment and cap­tures the edu­ca­tor’s atten­tion, result­ing in a stern rebuke for both lads. Dur­ing the recess, Tom and Becky share the vacat­ed class­room. Tom per­suades Becky to engage roman­ti­cal­ly with him, an accord they seal with pro­claim­ing “I cher­ish you” and a kiss. Ensnared in the fer­vor of the moment, Tom con­veys his enthu­si­asm regard­ing their affil­i­a­tion but unwit­ting­ly divulges his pri­or attach­ment with Amy Lawrence. This dis­clo­sure reduces Becky to tears as she pre­sumes Tom’s endur­ing affec­tion for Amy. Despite his vehe­ment repu­di­a­tions and avowals of affec­tion sole­ly for Becky, she remains incon­solable, declin­ing the brass and iron knob ten­dered as a token of his love. Tom’s melo­dra­mat­ic exit exac­er­bates her anguish as she per­ceives his absence for the remain­der of the day.

Chapter 8

Tom whiles away the lin­ger­ing por­tion of his day wan­der­ing in the woods, fluc­tu­at­ing between fan­ta­siz­ing about being a buc­ca­neer and endeav­or­ing an inef­fec­tive charm to locate his miss­ing mar­bles. Even­tu­al­ly, he chances upon Joe Harp­er. They engage in a game of Robin Hood before return­ing home, mutu­al­ly agree­ing that “they would pre­fer being out­laws a year in Sher­wood For­est than Pres­i­dent of the Unit­ed States forever.”

Chapter 9

Tom stealth­ily absconds from his domi­cile at night, join­ing Huck at the grave­yard. They ensconce them­selves prox­i­mate to the recent bur­ial site of Hoss Williams, antic­i­pat­ing to sight infer­nal enti­ties. Ere long, they dis­cern three sil­hou­ettes approach­ing the grave. Ini­tial­ly mis­ap­pre­hend­ing them for demons, the boys are stag­gered to dis­cern them as Dr. Robin­son, Muff Pot­ter, and Injun Joe from their vicin­i­ty. Dr. Robin­son directs his com­rades to dis­in­ter Hoss Williams’ remains, pre­sum­ably for anatom­i­cal study. After exe­cut­ing the task, Pot­ter demands addi­tion­al remu­ner­a­tion, which Robin­son spurns. This trig­gers Injun Joe to recount a past alter­ca­tion where he was spurned at the Robin­sons’ res­i­dence, prompt­ing him to seek vengeance. A scuf­fle ensues; Dr. Robin­son assails Injun Joe, then defends him­self against Pot­ter wield­ing a tomb­stone. Amidst the tumult, Injun Joe employs Pot­ter’s blade to slay Dr. Robin­son. Tom and Huck abscond imper­cep­ti­bly. Lat­er, Pot­ter reawak­ens and inter­ro­gates Injun Joe regard­ing the event. Injun Joe deceit­ful­ly con­vinces the bewil­dered Pot­ter that he dis­patched Dr. Robin­son in an ine­bri­at­ed fren­zy. He pledges to con­ceal Pot­ter’s secret, then departs, leav­ing Pot­ter’s knife embed­ded in the deceased doctor.

Chapter 10

Con­cealed in an unused tan­nery, Tom and Huck are obliv­i­ous to Injun Joe’s strat­a­gem to impli­cate Pot­ter in the homi­cide. Appre­hen­sive that Joe might pur­sue them if they divulge his scheme and he evades pun­ish­ment, they vow with blood not to divulge what they wit­nessed. Upon hear­ing a stray canine’s mourn­ful wails, they fear it por­tends their demise. How­ev­er, upon ven­tur­ing out­side, they dis­cov­er the dog direct­ed toward Muff Pot­ter. Upon Tom sneak­ing into his domi­cile and repose, his cousin Sid is still awake. The sub­se­quent morn­ing, he noti­fies Aunt Pol­ly of Tom’s tardy return. Post a tear­ful admo­ni­tion from Aunt Pol­ly, Tom expe­ri­ences the bur­den of guilt as if it were “worse than a thou­sand whip­pings.” At school, his despon­den­cy deep­ens upon find­ing the and­iron knob he attempt­ed to give Becky, repu­di­at­ed and desert­ed on his desk.

Chapter 11

Con­se­quent to wit­ness­ing Dr. Robin­son’s mur­der by Tom and Huck, the physi­cian’s cadav­er is stum­bled upon in the bur­ial ground by the denizens, along with Potter’s weapon. An unease per­vades as a throng con­gre­gates, and Pot­ter arrives at the scene. In a sur­pris­ing turn of events, Injun Joe imputes the mur­der of Pot­ter, cul­mi­nat­ing in his appre­hen­sion by the sher­iff. Tom is tor­ment­ed by guilt for con­ceal­ing the truth of the homi­cide, result­ing in sleep­less nights. Nonethe­less, Aunt Pol­ly erro­neous­ly attrib­ut­es his dis­tress to the dis­heart­en­ing news of the crime. Sub­se­quent­ly, Tom estab­lish­es a rou­tine of sur­rep­ti­tious­ly deliv­er­ing small trib­utes to Pot­ter in his incar­cer­a­tion cell every few days.

Chapter 12

Becky Thatch­er falls ill and is unable to attend school, deep­en­ing Tom’s despon­den­cy. Observ­ing his melan­choly state, Aunt­Pol­ly starts to wor­ry about his safe­ty. Test­ing out var­i­ous inef­fec­tive cures, the worst of which is a foul-tast­ing mix­ture called “Pain-killer,” Tom can­not bear it and secret­ly gives it to the cat, caus­ing it to act errat­i­cal­ly. When Aunt Pol­ly dis­cov­ers Tom’s decep­tion, she con­tem­plates that “what was harsh treat­ment to a feline might also be harsh treat­ment to a lad,” and allows him to go to school with­out reper­cus­sions. Becky rejoins school that day but pays no atten­tion to Tom.

Chapter 13

Feel­ing unjust­ly treat­ed, Tom resolves to pur­sue his pre­vi­ous idea of becom­ing a pirate. He meets Joe Harp­er, who is also upset because his moth­er wrong­ly accused and pun­ished him for theft. Encoun­ter­ing Huck Finn, always eager for a new adven­ture, the three decide to flee to Jackson’s Island, a seclud­ed, wood­ed spot locat­ed three miles down­stream from St. Peters­burg. That very night, using a raft, they trav­el to the island, shout­ing non­sen­si­cal nau­ti­cal com­mands to each oth­er along the way. By around two in the morn­ing, they arrive at the island, start a fire, and con­sume some bacon Joe had tak­en for them. The rest of the night is spent dis­cussing pirate con­duct. How­ev­er, they soon start feel­ing guilty about the stolen food, under­stand­ing that theft is clear­ly for­bid­den in the Bible. They agree that “their acts of pira­cy should not be taint­ed with the sin of thiev­ery” before falling asleep.

Chapter 14

The boys awake on Jack­son’s Island to dis­cov­er their raft miss­ing, but they are unfazed. Instead, they are pleased to have sev­ered their final link to St. Peters­burg. They find a spring, fish, and enjoy a hearty break­fast. As they explore, Tom and Joe con­clude that pirate life is near­ly ide­al. Yet, by after­noon, home­sick­ness begins to creep in as their con­ver­sa­tions and enthu­si­asm wane. Lat­er in the after­noon, they spot numer­ous boats on the riv­er, real­iz­ing that the towns­folk, pre­sum­ing they have drowned, are search­ing for them. This real­iza­tion briefly uplifts their spir­its, mak­ing them feel hero­ic. After their evening meal, how­ev­er, Tom and Joe start pon­der­ing about their loved ones who might be miss­ing them. Joe timid­ly sug­gests return­ing home, but Tom dis­re­gards the idea. Lat­er that night, Tom decides to sneak back to town to gauge the reac­tion to their dis­ap­pear­ance. Before depart­ing, he writes mes­sages on two sycamore scrolls, hid­ing one in his pock­et and the oth­er in Joe’s hat.

chapter 15

After swim­ming to the Illi­nois bank from a sand­bar, Tom sneaks onto a fer­ry to return to Mis­souri. Back home, he eaves­drops on Aunt Pol­ly, Sid, Mary, and Mrs. Harp­er. Aside from Sid, he hears them express­ing sor­row and regret over los­ing the boys. The dis­cov­ery of the boys’ raft down­stream has led them to believe that the young­sters drowned. After every­one has retired for the night, Tom pon­ders leav­ing one of his sycamore scrolls near Aunt Pol­ly’s bed but decides against it. He then heads back to the island, find­ing Huck and Joe prepar­ing break­fast. He nar­rates his adven­tures to them.

Chapter 16

The boys stum­ble upon tur­tle eggs on the sand­bar, which they rel­ish for sup­per and break­fast. Par­tak­ing in swim­ming, wrestling, and a make-believe cir­cus on the beach, they start to feel a yearn­ing for home. Tom, in par­tic­u­lar, finds him­self doo­dling “BECKY” in the sand. When Joe pro­pos­es they return home, and Huck agrees, Tom halts them with a unique plan of his own. Intrigued by the secret plan, unknown to us, both boys opt to stay on the island, regain­ing their enthu­si­asm. In the after­noon, Tom and Joe per­suade Huck to teach them how to smoke. Using pipes craft­ed by Huck, they attempt to smoke, envi­sion­ing the impres­sion they’ll make casu­al­ly smok­ing in front of their friends back home. How­ev­er, their ama­teur stom­achs rebel, prompt­ing them to aban­don their pipes, blam­ing their dis­com­fort on some­thing they ate. They even­tu­al­ly drift off to sleep in dif­fer­ent spots in the woods, like­ly feel­ing ill. That night, when Huck offers to clean their pipes, they decline, attribut­ing their unease to food. A fierce thun­der­storm strikes the island that night. Seek­ing refuge in their tent, they are forced to hud­dle beneath a large oak tree by the riv­er when the wind blows away the tent roof. They watch in trep­i­da­tion as the storm wreaks hav­oc on their island. After the storm sub­sides, they return to their camp to find the tree, their shel­ter, com­plete­ly rav­aged. After the storm pass­es, they light a new fire from the remains of the burnt tree and cook some ham. They nap briefly and wake up mid-morn­ing, dis­tract­ing them­selves from long­ing for home by play­ing Indi­an. As meal­times approach, they remem­ber that before eat­ing togeth­er, Indi­ans would smoke a peace pipe. Tom and Joe give smok­ing anoth­er try, feel­ing less queasy than before.

Chapter 17

Fol­low­ing the pre­sumed demise of the boys, the towns­peo­ple are con­sumed by grief. Becky Thatch­er feels remorse for her pre­vi­ous cold­ness towards Tom, while class­mates recall a fore­bod­ing feel­ing the last time they saw the boys. On a sub­se­quent Sun­day, the vil­lagers assem­ble for the assumed funer­al. Dur­ing the ser­vice, the min­is­ter deliv­ers a glow­ing eulo­gy for the boys, lead­ing the con­gre­ga­tion to reassess their pri­or opin­ions of Tom and Joe. Over­whelmed with emo­tion, every­one in the church breaks down in tears. Just then, fol­low­ing Tom’s scheme, the boys make a grand entrance through a side door, hav­ing qui­et­ly lis­tened to their own eulo­gies. Joe Harper’s fam­i­ly, Aunt Pol­ly, and Mary rush to embrace their boys, leav­ing Huck unno­ticed. Tom protests, stat­ing, “[I]t isn’t fair. Some­body needs to be hap­py to see Huck,” prompt­ing Aunt Pol­ly to also hug Huck, to his dis­com­fort. The con­gre­ga­tion then joins in singing “Old Hundred.”

Chapter 18

The morn­ing after return­ing from the island, Aunt Pol­ly scolds Tom for not hint­ing that he was alive. Tom defends his actions, argu­ing that reveal­ing he was alive would have spoiled the adven­ture, but admits that he “dreamed” of every­one in town. He recounts his dream, which was actu­al­ly his clan­des­tine vis­it to the house a few nights ear­li­er. Aunt Pol­ly, tak­en aback by Tom’s tale, for­gives him. Sid, on the oth­er hand, is sus­pi­cious about the accu­ra­cy of Tom’s dream. At school, Tom rev­els in his new­found hero sta­tus. Instead of rec­on­cil­ing with Becky, he begins to spend time with Amy Lawrence. This upsets Becky, who retal­i­ates by invit­ing every­one except Tom and Amy to a pic­nic, cre­at­ing a love tri­an­gle of jeal­ousy between her, Tom, and Amy. Dur­ing recess, Becky turns the tables by agree­ing to peruse a pic­ture book with Alfred Tem­ple, the new city boy with whom Tom had pre­vi­ous­ly clashed. This stirs jeal­ousy in Tom, prompt­ing him to lose inter­est in Amy. Relieved, Tom leaves for lunch. Once he departs, Becky ditch­es Alfred. Wit­ness­ing this, Alfred ruins Tom’s spelling book with ink. Becky con­tem­plates whether to alert Tom or let him suf­fer con­se­quences. After con­tem­plat­ing Tom’s recent aloof­ness, she deter­mines that pun­ish­ment is war­rant­ed and resolves to detest him indefinitely.

Chapter 19

Upon return­ing home, Aunt Pol­ly learns from Mrs. Harp­er that Tom’s sup­posed prophet­ic dream was a hoax, and he had sneaked back home one night to eaves­drop. Aunt Pol­ly scolds him for mak­ing her seem fool­ish in front of Mrs. Harp­er. She ques­tions why, despite being at home, he took no action to ease the anx­i­ety plagu­ing every­one. Tom claims he had intend­ed to leave a note for her but hes­i­tat­ed for fear of spoil­ing the sur­prise, so he kept it in his pock­et. She dis­miss­es him to school and resolves to check his jack­et, the same one he wore to Jackson’s Island, with­out get­ting agi­tat­ed if the note is miss­ing. Upon dis­cov­er­ing the note, she sheds tears and declares, “I could par­don the boy now, even if he had com­mit­ted a myr­i­ad of transgressions!”

Chapter 20

While at school, Tom attempts to rec­on­cile with Becky, who rebuffs him and eager­ly antic­i­pates his ret­ri­bu­tion for defac­ing the spelling book. She stum­bles upon a key in the teacher’s desk draw­er, which hous­es a book acces­si­ble only to Mr. Dob­bins, the teacher. Open­ing it, she dis­cov­ers an anato­my text­book – Mr. Dob­bins nur­tures aspi­ra­tions of becom­ing a doc­tor. Turn­ing to the first page fea­tur­ing a nude illus­tra­tion, Tom enters sud­den­ly. His abrupt entrance star­tles her, lead­ing her to tear the page. Tear­ful­ly, she blames Tom for caus­ing the dam­age and is cer­tain she will be penal­ized. As the class gath­ers, Tom brave­ly accepts his pun­ish­ment, assum­ing he has unin­ten­tion­al­ly spilled ink on his book. Mr. Dob­bins notices the defaced book and inter­ro­gates each stu­dent. When it’s Beck­y’s turn, she appears on the brink of con­fess­ing but is res­cued when Tom stands and con­fess­es, “I did it!”. His admis­sion earns him anoth­er penal­ty but also restores his sta­tus as Beck­y’s hero.

Chapter 21

As sum­mer approach­es, rest­less­ness per­vades the stu­dents, prompt­ing Mr. Dob­bins to height­en his dis­ci­pline, lead­ing the boys to con­spire against him. The annu­al town event, the “Exam­i­na­tion,” unfolds in the school premis­es, fea­tur­ing com­pe­ti­tions in recita­tions, spelling, and geog­ra­phy. Tom strug­gles through “Give me lib­er­ty or give me death,” only to suc­cumb to stage fright. Sub­se­quent­ly, the girls present their com­i­cal­ly inept poems and essays. The cli­max ensues as the school­mas­ter sketch­es a U.S. map on the black­board dur­ing the geog­ra­phy con­test. Sud­den­ly, a cat, blind­fold­ed and sus­pend­ed from the ceil­ing, descends into view. Star­tled, the cat flails, yank­ing off Mr. Dobbins’s wig, reveal­ing a gleam­ing bald scalp paint­ed gold ear­li­er by the sign painter’s appren­tice while the teacher was inebriated.

Chapter 22

Com­menc­ing sum­mer, Tom enlists as a Cadet of Tem­per­ance, enticed by their flam­boy­ant uni­forms. How­ev­er, the manda­to­ry absten­tion from smok­ing, chew­ing tobac­co, and curs­ing pos­es a for­mi­da­ble chal­lenge. He plans to per­sist until he can don a red sash at Judge Fra­zier’s antic­i­pat­ed funer­al. Alas, when the judge unex­pect­ed­ly recov­ers, Tom resigns from the Cadets, only for the judge to pass away that very night. Sum­mer swift­ly dwin­dles into tedi­um. Becky Thatch­er vis­its her rel­a­tives in Con­stan­tino­ple, and the tran­sient amuse­ments of cir­cus­es, parades, and min­strel shows offer fleet­ing diver­sions. The unsolved mys­tery of Dr. Robinson’s mur­der weighs heav­i­ly on Tom’s psy­che. Strick­en with measles and amidst recu­per­a­tion, he dis­cov­ers a reli­gious revival has swept the town, affect­ing seem­ing­ly his com­pan­ions. A fierce thun­der­storm that night con­vinces Tom it is ret­ri­bu­tion for his mis­deeds. His measles resur­face, con­fin­ing him to bed for three weeks. Upon recov­ery, he finds his friends have for­sak­en their new­found devoutness.

Chapter 23

As Muff Pot­ter’s impend­ing tri­al looms, Tom and Huck grap­ple with whether to con­fess their wit­ness­ing of the event. Fear­ful of reprisal from Injun Joe, they opt to sur­rep­ti­tious­ly aid Pot­ter by pro­vid­ing him with tobac­co and match­es, feel­ing remorse each time he express­es grat­i­tude for their cama­raderie. The tri­al unfolds, with Injun Joe recount­ing his ver­sion of the inci­dent. Mul­ti­ple wit­ness­es attest to Pot­ter’s odd behav­ior, yet the defense attor­ney abstains from cross-exam­in­ing any of them. In a sur­pris­ing twist, the defense attor­ney sum­mons Tom Sawyer to tes­ti­fy. Ter­ri­fied, Tom takes the stand and divulges the events of that fate­ful night. Upon hear­ing Tom’s tes­ti­mo­ny of Injun Joe mur­der­ing the doc­tor, Injun Joe makes a sud­den dash, breaks free from the crowd, and escapes through a window.

Chapter 24

Tom gar­ners acclaim as a hero, rev­el­ing in the respect and grat­i­tude of Muff Pot­ter and the towns­peo­ple by day. How­ev­er, shroud­ed in dark­ness, his mind is haunt­ed by the chill­ing specter of Injun Joe seek­ing ret­ri­bu­tion. Injun Joe has inex­plic­a­bly van­ished, elud­ing the town’s con­cert­ed efforts and the pur­suit of a hired detective.

Chapter 25

One day, Tom feels com­pelled to seek out hid­den trea­sure. Run­ning into Huck Finn, they con­verse about poten­tial trea­sure troves, the nature of the loot, and the pecu­liar obser­va­tion that mon­archs, despite own­ing numer­ous jew­els, have but a sin­gle des­ig­na­tion. They agree to inves­ti­gate the near­est tree devoid of leaves, a reput­ed hid­ing spot for trea­sures. Upon arrival, they debate how to uti­lize the for­tune once found. Huck envi­sions squan­der­ing it on con­fec­tions and bev­er­ages, while Tom con­tem­plates using it for nup­tials, a notion Huck deems ludi­crous. They spend the after­noon exca­vat­ing sev­er­al spots around the tree, to no avail. Ini­tial­ly attribut­ing their mis­for­tune to a witch, Tom soon real­izes their mis­take: they should search where the tree lim­b’s shad­ow falls pre­cise­ly at mid­night. Return­ing that night to resume dig­ging, they remain fruit­less. Dis­heart­ened and unnerved by the eerie wood­land, they aban­don their quest, reluc­tant­ly agree­ing to try their luck next in an aban­doned, rumored to be “haunt­ed,” edi­fice nearby.

Chapter 26

Intend­ing to explore the haunt­ed house, Tom and Huck rec­og­nize that it’s sup­pos­ed­ly an ill-fat­ed Fri­day and post­pone their vis­it to the fol­low­ing day, Sat­ur­day. They choose to spend the day engaged in a game of Robin Hood. Arriv­ing at the house the sub­se­quent day, they explore the ground floor before ascend­ing to the upper lev­el. Mean­while, two strangers enter the premis­es. One appears unkempt and unsight­ly, while the oth­er is a mute, deaf Spaniard with a lengthy white beard, famil­iar to the boys from St. Peters­burg. Con­cealed, the boys eaves­drop on their dis­cus­sion of illic­it schemes, includ­ing a “risky” scheme Injun Joe is plot­ting. While the men drift off to sleep, Tom desires to flee, but Huck fears being appre­hend­ed. Upon the strangers wak­ing up, they con­ceal their pil­fered funds, which amount to $600 in sil­ver coins, as it is too hefty to car­ry. In the process, they stum­ble upon an iron box brim­ming with gold coins while con­ceal­ing their spoils. Sus­pi­cions arise that some­one else had been inside the res­i­dence upon observ­ing that their new­found tools are pris­tine with fresh earth on them. Injun Joe endeav­ors to ascend the stairs but fails when the steps give way. Sub­se­quent­ly, he opts to relo­cate the trea­sure to a fresh con­cealed loca­tion, denot­ed as “Num­ber Two—beneath the cross.” Post the depar­ture of the thieves, Tom and Huck leave behind their tools and plan to keep watch for the Spaniard to tail him to “Num­ber Two.” They dread that Injun Joe’s forth­com­ing “under­tak­ing” may impli­cate them. Huck com­forts Tom by assert­ing that since he was the sole wit­ness, Injun Joe is like­ly to focus on him. Tom derives mea­ger solace from Huck­’s reassurances.

Chapter 27

Fol­low­ing an uneasy night, Tom awak­ens, pon­der­ing if the devel­op­ments of the pri­or day were mere­ly a dream. After con­vers­ing with Huck, he is con­vinced of their gen­uine­ness. They spec­u­late that the enig­mat­ic “Num­ber Two” might be a cham­ber in one of the town’s inns. Tom’s inquiry reveals a lawyer lodges in room two of the ini­tial inn, where­as the sec­ond inn har­bors a per­sis­tent­ly locked num­ber two room. The innkeep­er’s son alludes that the room is sole­ly uti­lized at night and had man­i­fest­ed signs of being occu­pied the pre­vi­ous night. They con­coct a strat­e­gy to pro­cure keys to unlock the back door of the room. Con­cur­rent­ly, they decide to tail Injun Joe if he mate­ri­al­izes, as a con­tin­gency arrange­ment in case the room hypoth­e­sis is off target.

Chapter 28

On a Thurs­day, the boys ven­ture to the local pub. Tom enters while Huck acts as a look­out out­side. Sud­den­ly, Tom rush­es out, urg­ing Huck to has­ten away swift­ly. They main­tain their pace until they reach the oppos­ing end of town. Tom elu­ci­dates dis­cov­er­ing Injun Joe, sprawled out amidst deplet­ed liquor bot­tles, with the door left unlocked. The para­dox is that the pub pur­ports to be a “Tem­per­ance Tav­ern” abstain­ing from serv­ing alco­hol. They deduce that the room like­ly serves as a clan­des­tine alco­hol dis­pens­ing site. They chart a plan: Huck will mon­i­tor the room each night, and if Injun Joe departs, he will sum­mon Tom to recov­er the con­cealed treasure.

Chapter 29

The Thatch­ers return from Con­stan­tino­ple, and Tom learns of Beck­y’s forth­com­ing pic­nic. It is slat­ed to tran­spire at a renowned cav­ern down­stream. Beck­y’s moth­er prefers her to lodge at a com­rade’s res­i­dence near the fer­ry, yet Tom con­vinces her to spend the night at Wid­ow Dou­glas’s abode where they might rel­ish ice cream. Dur­ing the fer­ry voy­age, a momen­tary appre­hen­sion grips Tom regard­ing miss­ing Injun Joe’s actions. How­ev­er, the allure of mer­ri­ment with Becky sup­plants those con­cerns. They arrive at a “wood­ed hol­low,” frol­ic amidst the for­est, par­take in a repast, and sub­se­quent­ly delve into McDougal’s cave. They emerge in the twi­light cloaked in clay and embark on the home­ward-bound fer­ry. Upon the fer­ry’s return, Huck espies two indi­vid­u­als bear­ing a case and infers it to be Injun Joe and his part­ner, plau­si­bly abscond­ing with the trea­sure. He tails them to Wid­ow Dou­glas’s res­i­dence, where Injun Joe unveils his har­row­ing ret­ri­bu­tion scheme against the wid­ow, stem­ming from a pre­vi­ous episode involv­ing her hus­band, the erst­while jus­tice of the peace who had him whipped for vagrancy. As Injun Joe and his cohort lie in wait for the wid­ow’s home light to extin­guish, Huck scur­ries to alert a near­by Welsh­man and his off­spring. Armed, they set off towards the wid­ow’s dwelling. Upon hear­ing a sud­den fusil­lade of shots, Huck flees in fright.

Chapter 30

Ear­ly on a Sun­day morn­ing, Huck clan­des­tine­ly ven­tures to the Welsh­man’s abode, dis­cov­er­ing that the towns­peo­ple are on the look­out for the deaf and mute Spaniard and his accom­plice. These indi­vid­u­als are the same ones who were repelled by the Welsh­man and his prog­e­ny. Unin­formed of the Spaniard’s true iden­ti­ty, the Welsh­man lis­tens to Huck recount his escapade from the pre­ced­ing night. Despite endeav­or­ing to side­step men­tion­ing the trea­sure, Huck ulti­mate­ly unveils the Spaniard as Injun Joe. The Welsh­man dis­clos­es that the par­cel the duo trans­port­ed held tools for bur­glary. This puts Huck at ease, hint­ing that the trea­sure might still be at the tav­ern. Reports of the recent occur­rences spread, yet the Welsh­man with­holds the boy’s iden­ti­ty who res­cued the wid­ow, prepar­ing for a grand dis­clo­sure. At the church, the con­gre­ga­tion buzzes with the inci­dents, but pan­de­mo­ni­um erupts upon dis­cov­er­ing Tom and Beck­y’s absence, deemed to be ensnared in the cave. A search par­ty is con­vened and ven­tures towards the cave. As the day wears on sans tid­ings of the young­sters, Huck falls ill and is nur­tured by Wid­ow Dou­glas, obliv­i­ous to Huck­’s impli­ca­tion in the antecedent night’s affairs. Hope wanes amidst the searchers upon mere­ly encoun­ter­ing “BECKY & TOM” inscribed on the cave walls in soot and a rib­bon belong­ing to Becky. In the sub­se­quent days, it is unveiled that the Tem­per­ance Tav­ern dis­pens­es alco­hol. A recu­per­at­ing Huck inquires Wid­ow Dou­glas about the tav­ern, learn­ing of its clo­sure due to the rev­e­la­tion of alco­hol, lead­ing Huck to spec­u­late the trea­sure has been retrieved. Mean­while, Tom and Becky remain missing.

Chapter 31

Tom and Becky find them­selves iso­lat­ed from their pic­nic cohorts after stray­ing. They uti­lize smoke to leave marks on the walls but inad­ver­tent­ly nav­i­gate to a cham­ber infest­ed with bats. The bats pur­sue them deep­er into unchart­ed cav­ern sec­tions. After evad­ing the bats, they grasp that they’ve jour­neyed too far in an attempt to tra­verse back, find­ing their path obstruct­ed by the bats. They opt for an alter­nate route, only to end up irre­triev­ably lost owing to the absence of mark­ers. The duo per­sists in their aim­less odyssey, inter­mit­tent­ly halt­ing to vocif­er­ate for help. Becky sub­se­quent­ly dozes off. Upon her awak­en­ing, they acknowl­edge that their par­ents won’t dis­cern their absence until the sub­se­quent day. This real­iza­tion instills a sense of despon­den­cy, mar­gin­al­ly assuaged upon hear­ing calls for res­cue. Alas, their respons­es remain unheard, encoun­ter­ing fur­ther imped­i­ments. The entreaties for res­cue grad­u­al­ly dwin­dle. With their can­dles dwin­dling, they chance upon a spring and opt to rest there. While Becky slum­bers, Tom ven­tures into oth­er direc­tions using a kite line. He dis­cerns a can­dle on the oppo­site side of a chasm, clutched by none oth­er than Injun Joe. Trem­bling with trep­i­da­tion, he retreats with­out divulging his encounter with Becky and resumes his exploration.

Chapter 32

By Tues­day night, the town’s absent younglings, Tom and Becky, are yet to be locat­ed, with Judge Thatch­er and a select few per­sist­ing in the cave inves­ti­ga­tion. How­ev­er, as the night wanes, word spreads that the young­sters are alive, elat­ing the entire­ty of St. Peters­burg. Tom and Becky are con­veyed to the Thatch­er abode, where Tom delin­eates their escape. He had been explor­ing a tun­nel with a kite string that even­tu­al­ly reached its lim­it. Just as he con­tem­plat­ed retrac­ing his steps, a faint glim­mer of day­light caught his atten­tion in the dis­tance. He left the string behind and slith­ered towards the glow, even­tu­al­ly emerg­ing to behold the Mis­sis­sip­pi Riv­er. He retraced his steps to sum­mon Becky, and togeth­er they jour­neyed out, arriv­ing at a res­i­dence sit­u­at­ed five miles down­stream from the cav­ern. All indi­vid­u­als, includ­ing Judge Thatch­er and the remain­ing search par­ty, breathed a sigh of relief upon learn­ing that Tom and Becky were unscathed. They both remained con­fined to their beds for the major­i­ty of the week. When Tom vis­it­ed a sick Huck on Fri­day, Wid­ow Dou­glas cau­tioned him against broach­ing top­ics that might unset­tle Huck. While there, Tom uncov­ered Injun Joe’s unsuc­cess­ful bid on Wid­ow Dou­glas’ life and dis­cov­ered that Joe’s part­ner per­ished while attempt­ing to escape. Rough­ly two weeks after their cave escape, Tom con­versed with Judge Thatch­er and was informed that the cave entrance had been sealed per­ma­nent­ly to pre­vent sim­i­lar inci­dents. This rev­e­la­tion trou­bled Tom, who informed the judge that Injun Joe remained trapped inside the cavern.

Chapter 33

A group swift­ly jour­neyed to the cav­ern, unsealed its entrance, and found that Injun Joe had met his demise due to star­va­tion with­in. It seemed that he had sub­sist­ed by devour­ing bats, uti­liz­ing rem­nants of can­dle ends, and fash­ion­ing a con­tain­er from stone to gath­er water from a sta­lac­tite. Twain men­tions that “Injun Joe’s Cup” has now become a pop­u­lar attrac­tion for vis­i­tors explor­ing the cave. Injun Joe’s funer­al left Tom con­vinced that the con­cealed gold was not in Room No. 2 at the Tem­per­ance Tav­ern but still hid­den with­in the cave. Lat­er that day, Tom and Huck ven­tured to the cave entrance from which Tom and Becky had escaped and delved inside. Tom day­dreamed about form­ing a band of thieves and des­ig­nat­ing this sec­tion of the cave as their secret head­quar­ters. The boys envi­sioned a life of ban­dit­ry as they made their way to the spot where Tom had encoun­tered Injun Joe. Tom noticed a scorched cross on the cave wall and con­vinced Huck that the trea­sure was con­cealed there. Huck was fright­ened by the notion of Injun Joe’s specter, but Tom reas­sured him that the cross would repel the spir­it. With Huck paci­fied, they com­menced their search but found noth­ing. Opt­ing to dig beneath the stone, they unearthed guns, moc­casins, a belt, and the cov­et­ed trea­sure. The boys decid­ed to leave the firearms behind, deem­ing them use­ful for their prospec­tive gang of thieves. They trans­port­ed the gold from the cav­ern and loaded it onto their raft for the jour­ney back to St. Peters­burg. En route to stash the trea­sure, they encoun­tered the Welsh­man, who insist­ed they accom­pa­ny him to a fes­tiv­i­ty at Wid­ow Douglas’s abode. The Welsh­man observed their hefty box but assumed it con­tained scrap iron.

Chapter 34

Promi­nent indi­vid­u­als from the vil­lage had gath­ered at Wid­ow Dou­glas’s dwelling. While the boys read­ied them­selves, Huck con­fid­ed in Tom about his unease amidst such large gath­er­ings and expressed a desire to escape through the win­dow. Tom advised him to remain com­posed. Their con­ver­sa­tion was inter­rupt­ed by Sid, who dis­closed that the cel­e­bra­tion was in hon­or of the Welsh­man, Mr. Jones, and his kin. Alleged­ly, Mr. Jones intend­ed to reveal Huck as the true hero, but Sid haugh­ti­ly admit­ted to pre­empt­ing the sur­prise. Annoyed, Tom derid­ed Sid as a mali­cious informer and chased him away. Dur­ing the meal, Mr. Jones unveiled his rev­e­la­tion, feign­ing shock from the atten­dees. Wid­ow Dou­glas then voiced her inten­tion to adopt and edu­cate Huck. Tom inter­ject­ed, jest­ing that “Huck don’t need it. Huck’s rich.” The audi­ence chuck­led at the jest, but their amaze­ment soared as Tom pre­sent­ed the gold, amount­ing to over twelve thou­sand dollars.

Chapter 35

Despite his new­found afflu­ence and res­i­dence with Wid­ow Dou­glas, Huck Finn grap­pled with his abrupt assim­i­la­tion into soci­ety. The news of the dis­cov­ered gold aston­ished the town, spark­ing a surge of trea­sure hunters. The for­tune, now invest­ed, yield­ed the boys a dai­ly income rem­i­nis­cent of the min­is­ter’s stipend. Beck­y’s father, Judge Thatch­er, upon learn­ing of Tom’s com­mend­able actions, envi­sioned a legal career for him, com­menc­ing with enroll­ment in the Nation­al Mil­i­tary Acad­e­my. Mean­while, Huck wres­tled with soci­etal con­ven­tions of clean­li­ness and deco­rum. After three weeks of endur­ing his new life, Huck van­ished. The town’s search efforts proved fruit­less until Tom stum­bled upon his friend con­ceal­ing him­self in an old abat­toir. Huck con­fessed to Tom that he was not suit­ed for a life of pro­pri­ety. Tom, acqui­esc­ing to Huck­’s sen­ti­ments, laid down a sin­gle con­di­tion: should Huck wish to join Tom’s band of out­laws, he must pre­serve his rep­u­ta­tion to uphold the gang’s integri­ty. Reluc­tant­ly, Huck con­sent­ed to anoth­er month at the wid­ow’s res­i­dence, under the con­di­tion that Tom per­mit his entry into the gang.

conclusion

Twain asserts that the nar­ra­tive must con­clude at this junc­ture, as it chiefly revolves around a boy’s tale. Extend­ing it fur­ther would unknow­ing­ly trans­form it into a man’s sto­ry. He also notes that sev­er­al char­ac­ters in the nar­ra­tive are alive, leav­ing room for poten­tial future explo­rations of their destinies.