{"product_id":"2940014463447","title":"The Adventures of Tom Sawyer","description":"PREFACE\u003cbr\u003eMOST of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred; one or\u003cbr\u003etwo were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were\u003cbr\u003eschoolmates of mine. Huck Finn is drawn from life; Tom Sawyer also, but\u003cbr\u003enot from an individual -- he is a combina- tion of the characteristics of\u003cbr\u003ethree boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of\u003cbr\u003earchi- tecture.\u003cbr\u003eThe odd superstitions touched upon were all preva- lent among\u003cbr\u003echildren and slaves in the West at the period of this story -- that is to say,\u003cbr\u003ethirty or forty years ago.\u003cbr\u003eAlthough my book is intended mainly for the en- tertainment of boys\u003cbr\u003eand girls, I hope it will not be shunned by men and women on that account,\u003cbr\u003efor part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they\u003cbr\u003eonce were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and\u003cbr\u003ewhat queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in.\u003cbr\u003eTHE AUTHOR.\u003cbr\u003eHARTFORD, 1876.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eCHAPTER I\u003cbr\u003e\"TOM!\"\u003cbr\u003eNo answer.\u003cbr\u003e\"TOM!\"\u003cbr\u003eNo answer.\u003cbr\u003e\"What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You TOM!\"\u003cbr\u003eNo answer.\u003cbr\u003eThe old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about\u003cbr\u003ethe room; then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or\u003cbr\u003enever looked THROUGH them for so small a thing as a boy; they were\u003cbr\u003eher state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for \"style,\" not service\u003cbr\u003e-- she could have seen through a pair of stove-lids just as well. She looked\u003cbr\u003eperplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough\u003cbr\u003efor the furniture to hear:\u003cbr\u003e\"Well, I lay if I get hold of you I'll --\"\u003cbr\u003eShe did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and\u003cbr\u003epunching under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to\u003cbr\u003epunctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat.\u003cbr\u003e\"I never did see the beat of that boy!\"\u003cbr\u003eShe went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the\u003cbr\u003etomato vines and \"jimpson\" weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom.\u003cbr\u003eSo she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and shouted:\u003cbr\u003e\"Y-o-u-u TOM!\"\u003cbr\u003eThere was a slight noise behind her and she turned just in time to seize\u003cbr\u003ea small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight.\u003cbr\u003e\"There! I might 'a' thought of that closet. What you been doing in\u003cbr\u003ethere?\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Nothing.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Nothing! Look at your hands. And look at your mouth. What IS that\u003cbr\u003etruck?\"\u003cbr\u003e\"I don't know, aunt.\"\u003cbr\u003e\"Well, I know. It's jam -- that's what it is. Forty times I've said if you\u003cbr\u003edidn't let that jam alone I'd skin you. Hand me that switch.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe switch hovered in the air -- the peril was des- perate --\u003cbr\u003e\"My! Look behind you, aunt!\"\u003cbr\u003eThe old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The\u003cbr\u003elad fled on the instant, scrambled up the high board-fence, and\u003cbr\u003edisappeared over it.\u003cbr\u003eHis aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then broke into a gentle\u003cbr\u003elaugh.\u003cbr\u003e\"Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't he played me tricks\u003cbr\u003eenough like that for me to be look- ing out for him by this time? But old\u003cbr\u003efools is the big- gest fools there is. Can't learn an old dog new tricks, as\u003cbr\u003ethe saying is. But my goodness, he never plays them alike, two days, and\u003cbr\u003ehow is a body to know what's coming? He 'pears to know just how long he\u003cbr\u003ecan torment me before I get my dander up, and he knows if he can make\u003cbr\u003eout to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, it's all down again and I\u003cbr\u003ecan't hit him a lick. I ain't doing my duty by that boy, and that's the Lord's\u003cbr\u003etruth, goodness knows. Spare the rod and spile the child, as the Good\u003cbr\u003eBook says. I'm a laying up sin and suffering for us both, I know. He's full\u003cbr\u003eof the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he's my own dead sister's boy, poor\u003cbr\u003ething, and I ain't got the heart to lash him, some- how. Every time I let him\u003cbr\u003eoff, my conscience does hurt me so, and every time I hit him my old heart\u003cbr\u003emost breaks. Well-a-well, man that is born of woman is of few days and\u003cbr\u003efull of trouble, as the Scripture says, and I reckon it's so. He'll play hookey\u003cbr\u003ethis evening, * and [* Southwestern for \"afternoon\"] I'll just be obleeged\u003cbr\u003eto make him work, to-morrow, to punish him. It's mighty hard to make\u003cbr\u003ehim work Saturdays, when all the boys is having holiday, but he hates\u003cbr\u003ework more than he hates anything else, and I've GOT to do some of my\u003cbr\u003eduty by him, or I'll be the ruination of the child.\"\u003cbr\u003eTom did play hookey, and he had a very good time. He got back home\u003cbr\u003ebarely in season to help Jim, the small colored boy, saw next-day's wood\u003cbr\u003eand split the kindlings before supper -- at least he was there in time to tell\u003cbr\u003ehis adventures to Jim while Jim did three-fourths of the work. Tom's\u003cbr\u003eyounger brother (or rather half-brother) Sid was already through with his\u003cbr\u003epart of the work (picking up chips), for he was a quiet boy, and had no ...","brand":"All classic book warehouse","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47069368189168,"sku":"2940014463447","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940014463447_p0.jpg?v=1763609141","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940014463447","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}