CHAPTER THREE

Tom in the Army—a New Love is Discovered

When Tom went to tell Aunt Polly he had finished the work, she was sitting beside an open window, half asleep, and holding a cat. She was surprised to see him. She thought he had given up hours ago.

"You've already finished? How is that possible?"

"Really, Auntie. It's all done."

She went to look at the fence and seeing that he had told her the truth she said, "Well now, you're a hard worker when you want to be Tom Sawyer! You can go play now, but come home early. And you can take an apple with you if you want."

Tom ran into the kitchen and after looking at the apple for a moment, picked up a piece of cake instead, and ran out to look for his friends.

Tom found them getting ready to play "war", and they chose Tom to be the leader of one of the armies. His friend, Joe Harper, was the leader of the other army. When the battle began, Tom and Joe sat under a tree and shouted commands to their soldiers. It was a bloody battle, and like most wars, no army was a clear winner. But the boys enjoyed themselves and agreed to meet again another day for more fighting.

On his way home, Tom passed Jeff Thatcher's house. And there he saw, for the first time, a beautiful blue-eyed and yellow-haired girl playing in the garden. Love was not a new feeling for Tom. Last week he had been in love with a girl named Amy Lawrence, but now she had been totally replaced by this new girl.

He couldn't stop watching her as she played, but suddenly he saw that she was looking at him, and he pretended that he hadn't noticed her. He tried to seem cool: walking on his hands, jumping and running about. But she lost interest and started to walk toward the house. Tom suddenly became sad, but was quickly made happy again when he saw her throw a flower over the fence.

Tom slowly walked over to where the flower was, looked around, and, after seeing that no one was looking, picked it up and put it under his shirt, next to his heart. He went home feeling excited. His aunt wondered what he could be so happy about. She hoped that it wasn't anything he could get into trouble for.

Unfortunately, later that evening his brother Sid took some sweets, but his aunt thought Tom had taken them, so she hit Tom instead of Sid. And later, when she discovered that she was wrong, she didn't apologize to Tom. This made him feel very sad. He wished he would die, so she would feel sorry. He liked the idea of her crying over his dead body.

So, he left his home and went down to the river. Looking at the water, he wondered if it would hurt to drown. Then he remembered his flower and took it from under his shirt. He wondered how the new girl would feel if he died. Would she cry or would she just continue to play in her garden, as if nothing happened?

The idea seemed bittersweet to him. He thought about it for a while and then started to walk back home.

He stopped near the Thatcher house. Was that room with the light on her room? He sat under the window and imagined laying down and dying right there and her finding his body the next morning. And in the middle of this thought, the window above him suddenly opened. He could hear the housekeeper talking to someone and then he felt water being poured from the window on top of him. Tom jumped up and ran. He was terribly wet. And when his brother, Sid, saw him enter through the bedroom window he didn't say anything because of Tom's angry face. But he planned to tell his aunt all about it the next morning.

(end of section)