CHAPTER TEN

The Agreement

Tom and Huck didn't look back the whole time they ran. And they didn't stop running until they reached the village. Then they went into an old empty building to hide for a while.

"I can't believe what we just saw. Do you think the doctor's dead, Huck?"

"If he is, then Indian Joe will be hanged."

Tom thought for a moment and said: "But we're the only people who know he did it."

"Oh. You're right. I didn't think about that."

"If we tell, Indian Joe may kill us."

"Well, maybe we won't have to tell. Maybe Muff Potter will."

"But Huck, Muff Potter didn't see what happened after the doctor hit him."

"Tom, we must agree never to tell anyone. Let's write our agreement in blood."

Tom agreed and with his knife he cut both his and Huckleberry's hands and wrote their agreement on a piece of wood:

Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer promise they will never tell about what they saw, and if they ever tell, they will die immediately.

Then each boy signed in blood, TS and HF. Tom wrote the H and F, since Huckleberry couldn't read or write. They then put the wood in a hole in the wall of the building and said goodbye to each other for the night.

The sun was just about to rise when Tom finally arrived home. He had entered through the window as usual, and felt safe that his aunt hadn't heard him, but Sid heard him, and, as always, he couldn't wait to tell Aunt Polly at breakfast.

When Tom joined Sid and his aunt at the breakfast table, Aunt Polly began to cry and complained that he was always making her sad: "No matter how hard I try to make you a good boy, you always do bad things!"

Tom hated to see his aunt cry. It made him feel terrible about himself. He promised her that he would be good from now on, but his aunt didn't seem to believe him.

His day only went worse when he went to school, for the teacher used his stick on both Tom and Joe for missing school the day before.

And when Tom sat down in his classroom chair he found a piece of paper with something wrapped in it waiting for him. He opened it and found the little gold ball he'd given Becky the other day. This was becoming one of the worst days in Tom's life.

(end of section)