Chapter 4 The second chapter is helpless to paint the wall, and the record is brilliant

It's Saturday morning, and the summer world is full of life, the sun is shining, the air is fresh.There is a song in everyone's heart, and some young people can't help singing it.Everyone's face is filled with joy, and everyone's steps are so light.The acacia trees were in bloom, and the air was filled with their sweet scent.The high Cardiff Mountain outside the village is covered with green vegetation. This mountain is not far from the village, like a "paradise", peaceful, dreamy and yearning. Tom appeared on the sidewalk with a bucket of mortar in one hand and a long-handled brush in the other.He looked around the fence, and all the happiness disappeared in an instant, and his heart was filled with melancholy.The fence was thirty yards long and nine feet high.Life was too dull and empty for him, living was just a burden.Sighing, he dipped a brush in the mortar and ran it along the top plank.Then brush it again, two times.Looking at the inconspicuous piece that had just been painted, compared with the far-reaching fence, Tom sat down on a wooden box in desperation.At this moment, Jim held a tin bucket in his hand, and sang "Buffalo Girls" and ran out of the gate boundingly.Going to town to fetch water from the pump had always been a tiresome chore in Tom's eyes, but he didn't see it that way now.He remembers having a lot of company there.There were white kids, black kids, and mixed-race kids, and men and women lined up to get water.Everyone rested there, exchanged their own playthings, quarreled, fought and played.And he remembered that even though their house was only a hundred and fifty yards or so from the water-carry, Jim never brought back a pail of water in an hour-sometimes even had to be urged.Tom says:

"Hey, Jim, if you paint some walls, I'll fetch water." Jim shook his head and said: "No, Master Tom. Old lady, she told me to carry water, and not stop and play with people on the road. She said she guessed, Master Tom, that you would let me paint the walls, so she told me to do my own work." , don’t mind other people’s business—she said she wants to see you paint the wall in person.” "Well, Jim, don't mind what she says to you. She always says that. Give me the bucket - I'll be right back.She won't know. " "Oh no, I dare not, Master Tom. The old lady will wring my head off, she will!"

"Her? She never beat anybody--she just tapped a thimble on the head--who cares, I wanted to ask you. She just talked hard, but said Can't hurt you--as long as she doesn't yell. I'll give you a treat, Jim, a white stone!" Jim began to waver. "White stone, Jim! That's a real fun stone." "Well, to tell you the truth, that's a pretty good thing. But Master Tom, I'm afraid of the old lady..." "And, Jim, I'll show you my toe, the swollen toe, if you will." Jim was a mortal after all, not a fairy—the temptation was too great for him.He put down the bucket, took the white stone, and bent over with interest to watch Tom untie the cloth band around his foot, and look at the sore toe.A little later, however, Jim, with a pain in his hip, ran quickly down the street with the bucket in his hand; and Tom continued to paint the walls with great vigor, for Aunt Polly was just now coming back from her work in the fields.She held a slipper in her hand, with a look of satisfaction in her eyes.

Tom's enthusiasm didn't last long, though.He began to think of some play arrangements he had made for this rest day, and the more he thought about it, the more uncomfortable he felt.After a while, those free children will come running up and down, doing all kinds of fun and fun games, and they will laugh at him when they see him having to paint the walls--thinking of this, Tom felt a burning pain in his heart.He took out all his treasures and looked at them carefully for a while-there were broken toys, some stones, and some useless things.These things are enough to exchange for other children to work for themselves, but it may not be enough to exchange for half an hour of absolute freedom.So he put these poor treasures in his pocket again, and gave up the idea of ​​using them to bribe those boys.At this moment of desperation and despair, he suddenly had an idea and made up his mind.It was a brilliant, brilliant idea.

He picked up the brush and went to work without a sound.Presently there appeared Ben Rogers—the boy Tom was most afraid of, of all the boys.Tom was most afraid of his sarcasm.Ben walked as if he were doing a triple jump—proof that he was in a light-hearted mood at the moment, and that he was about to do something fun.He was eating an apple, and from time to time he would make a long, pleasant "woo--" cry, and after a while he would ring a bell like "jingle, jingle, jingle", he was playing a steam ship.He was getting closer, so he slowed down, walked to the middle of the street, leaned to starboard, and made a laborious, artificial turn of the bow to stop the ship against the wind-he was playing the "Big Missouri", and seemed to have a draft of nine feet deep.He is both the ship, the captain and the engine bell.So he imagined himself standing on the top deck of the steamer giving orders and carrying them out at the same time.

"Stop the boat, man! Ding-ah bell!" The boat almost stopped, and then he moved slowly toward the sidewalk again. "Turn the bow! Ding-ah bell-ring!" He straightened his arms and hung them to his sides. "Back to starboard, ding-ah bell-ring! cha-boo-cha-boo! cha-boo!" As he yelled, he made a big circle with his hands--this represented a forty-foot wheel. "Stand back to port! Ding-ah bell-ring! Cha-woo-cha-cha-woo-cha-woo!" The left hand began to draw circles. "Starboard stop! Ding-ah bell-bell! Port stop! Starboard forward! Stop! Slowly turn outside! Ding-ah bell-bell! Cha-woo-woo! Get the bow rope Come on! Come on! Hey—pass the rope over the side of the boat again—what the hell are you doing! Wrap the end of the rope around the stakes and keep it tight—let it go! Engine stop, man! Ding —Ah bell-ring! Hit-hit-hit!" (Imitates the sound of the exhaust valve.)

Tom went on brushing the fence,--ignoring the steamer, and Ben stared at it for a moment, then said: "Well, you've had a better time, haven't you?" Tom didn't answer.Just inspecting the last piece he painted with an artist's eye, and brushing lightly.He looked at the fence again as before.Ben came and stood beside him.The sight of the apple made Tom's mouth water, but he went on painting his wall.Ben said: "Hey, old chap, you've got work to do, huh?" Tom turned sharply and said, "Well! It's you, Ben. I haven't noticed you yet."

"Well, I'm going to go swimming, I tell you. Don't you want to? Of course you'd rather work here, wouldn't you? Of course you would!" Tom looked at the boy and said: "What did you say? This is work?" "This is not called work, what is it called?" Tom went back to painting the walls, and said casually, "Maybe it's work, maybe it's not. I just know it's a lot of work for Tom Sawyer." "Oh, come on! Do you mean you like it?" The brush is still brushing. "Like doing it? Hey, I really don't understand why if I don't like doing it, which boy can have the opportunity to paint walls every day?"

This is something new.So Ben stopped eating apples.Tom moved the brush deftly back and forth--stopping and stepping back now and then to see the effect--a touch here, a touch there--then look at the effect again--Ben watched Tom carefully. Every move, the more you watch it, the more interested you become, and the more you watch it, the more you are attracted.Later he said: "Hey, Tom, let me brush up a bit." Tom thought for a moment, and was about to agree; but he changed his mind at once: "No--no, Ben--I don't think it can. Aunt Polly's very particular about this wall, you know--it's the street side--but if it's the back, you'll be fine with it." I don't think my aunt would care. Yes, she is very particular about this wall. It must be painted very carefully. I don't think there will be one in a thousand, maybe two thousand children who can Aunt Polly asked me to paint this wall." "Oh, is it? Well, just let me try. I'll just paint a little - Tom, if I were you, I'd let you try of."

"Ben, I'd like to, really. But Aunt Polly—well, Jim wants to do it, but she won't make him do it, and Sid wants to do it, and she won't let him do it. Now, you know I How embarrassing should it be? If you come to fiddle with this wall, if something goes wrong..." "Oh, it's all right, I'll be careful. Let me try. Hey—I'll give you the apple core." "Well, then... no, Ben, forget it. I'm afraid..." "I'll give you all the apples!" Tom gave up the brush to Ben, with reluctance on his face but pleasure in his heart. While the "Big Missouri" was working in the sun and sweating profusely, the resigned artist was sitting on a wooden barrel in the shade nearby, with his legs crossed, He ate the apple in big mouthfuls, while secretly thinking about how to kill more fools.There will be many such little fools.Every once in a while, some boys passed by; at first they all wanted to come and have fun, but in the end they were all left to paint the wall.By the time Ben was exhausted, Tom had already made a deal with Billy Fish.Bill trades a well-repaired kite for the chance to replace Ben.By the time Billy was about as good as he was, Jenny Miller bought the privilege with a dead mouse and the little rope on which it was tied--and one fool after another was duped for hours on end. Intermittent.By mid-afternoon, Tom, who had been a poor boy in the morning, was suddenly a rich man with pockets.In addition to the things mentioned above, there are twelve stones; a broken harmonica; a piece of blue glass that can be seen through; a cannon made of bobbins; a key that will not open any lock; a piece of chalk. ; a magnum cork; a tin soldier; a pair of tadpoles; six firecrackers; a one-eyed kitten; a brass doorknob; a dog collar—and no dog— A knife handle; four slices of orange peel; and a battered window frame.

He's been living comfortably and at his ease--plenty of company--and the walls have been painted a full three times.If he hadn't run out of mortar, he would have bankrupted every kid in the village. Tom said to himself, the world is not so empty and dull.He had unconsciously discovered one of the great laws of human conduct--that in order to make a grown man or a child desire something, it is only necessary to make it difficult to obtain.If he is a great and wise philosopher, as in this book, he will understand that "work" is what one is compelled to do, and "play" is what one is not obliged to do.This principle made him understand why making artificial flowers and pedaling wheels are considered work, while playing tenpins and climbing Mont Blanc are considered entertainment.Well-to-do gentlemen in England drive four-horse coaches twenty or thirty miles a day along the same route in the summer, and they pay a fortune for the privilege.But if you pay them for it, it turns it into a job, and they'll quit. Tom thought for a moment about the substantial changes that had occurred around him that day, and then went to the headquarters to report.