Chapter 8 Chapter 6: Tom Knows Becky, Earaches and Delights

Tom Sawyer was having a hard time Monday morning.It was always a hard time for Tom--for another long, hard week had begun.On this day, he always thought that it would be better without this rest day in the middle. On that day, he felt that going to school again was like going to prison and suffering, which disgusted him very much. Tom lay there thinking.Suddenly a thought flashed into his mind that he wished he was ill; that way he could stay home from school.It's possible.He checked himself carefully from top to bottom, and found nothing wrong.He searched again, and this time he thought he could find the reason for the pain in his stomach, and hoped to let it happen.But soon he was deflated, and there was no sign of pain at all.So he used his brain again, and suddenly, he found the target.One of his upper front teeth was loose.How lucky he was; he was about to start moaning, what he called a "prologue," when it occurred to him that if he made that excuse, his aunt would actually pull the tooth out, and what would happen? Stealing a chicken is not worth a handful of rice.So he wanted to keep this tooth for the time being, and then find another problem.After searching for a while, he couldn't find anything wrong. Later, he remembered that he had heard a doctor say that there was a disease that could make the patient lie down for two or three weeks, and if it was not done properly, a finger might rot.So the boy hastily pulled his swollen toe out of the quilt, lifted it up, and examined it carefully.However, he didn't know what symptoms the disease had.It was worth a try anyway, so he began to groan seriously.

But Sid was still asleep, unresponsive.Tom moaned louder, and felt his feet really hurt. Sid remained motionless. Tom was panting with exhaustion from moaning too much.He paused for a moment, then picked himself up again, and let out a series of wonderful groans. Sid was still sound asleep. Tom is on fire."Sid, Sid!" he yelled, shoving him.It worked, and Tom began moaning again.Sid yawned, stretched, snorted again as he propped himself up on his elbows, and stared at Tom with wide eyes.Tom was still barking, and Sid asked: "Tom! Hey, Tom!" (Tom doesn't answer.) "What's the matter, Tom! Tom! What's the matter with you, Tom?" He pushed Tom and looked anxiously into his face.

Tom groaned and said: "Oh, Sid, don't do this, don't push me." "Hey, Tom, what's the matter with you? I've got to get my aunt." "No—never mind. Maybe it'll pass by, without calling anybody." "I'm going to bark! Don't bark like that again, it's frightening. How long have you been in this pain?" "Hours, ouch! Sid, don't push me, you want my life!" "Tom, why didn't you wake me up sooner? Oh, Tom, stop yelling! I get goosebumps hearing you call that that.Tom, what's wrong? " "Sid, I forgive you everything (groans). I don't blame you for anything you've done to me. When I die..."

"Oh, Tom, you ain't gonna die, don't, Tom—oh, don't. Maybe—" "Sid, I forgive everyone (groans). Sid, please tell them. Sid, you give my window frame and my one-eyed kitten to the new girl, you say to her ..." But Sid grabbed his clothes and ran out.Tom was really sick now, and imagination had so much to do with it, that his groans sounded real. Sid ran down the stairs quickly, calling as he went: "Aunt Polly, come on! Tom is dying!" "dying?!" "Yes, Auntie. It's too late, come up!" "Nonsense! I don't believe it!"

But she ran upstairs quickly, Sid and Mary close behind.At this time, her face also turned pale, and her lips trembled.When she came to the bed, she gasped and asked: "It's you, Tom! Tom, what's wrong with you?" "Oh, Auntie, I—" "What's wrong with you—what's the matter with you, child?" "Oh, Auntie, I have a sore toe with inflammation!" The old lady sat down on the chair, laughed for a while, cried for a while, and then laughed and cried again.When she finally recovered herself, she said, "Tom, you really frightened me. Now, shut up, stop talking nonsense, and get up."

The moaning stopped and the pain in the toe disappeared immediately.The boy felt a little embarrassed, so he said: "Aunt Polly, that toe looks really inflamed. It hurts so much I forgot about my teeth." "Your teeth, what a strange thing! What's the matter with the teeth?" "One tooth is loose, and it's a real pain." "Come on, come on, don't you yell any more. Open your mouth, yes—you've got a real loose tooth, but you're not going to die. Mary, get me a silk thread, and go to the kitchen Get a piece of red-hot coals." Tom says:

"Ah, auntie, please be merciful. The toothache is gone now. If it hurts again, I won't cry. Auntie, please don't pull it out. I don't want to stay at home and play truant." "Oh, you're not playing truant, are you? So you're making such a fuss because you think you can stay at home instead of going to school and go fishing? Tom, Tom, I love you so much, but you It seems that they are playing tricks to annoy me, and want to ruin my old life." At this time, the preparation for tooth extraction was ready.The old lady tied one end of the silk thread with a slipknot and tied it firmly to Tom's tooth, and the other end to the bedpost.Then she took the red-hot coal, and thrust it so sharply in Tom's face that she nearly touched it.As a result, the tooth was hanging dangling from the bedpost.

But what is lost is what is gained.When Tom went to school after breakfast, every kid he met envied him because the gap in his upper teeth enabled him to spit in a new way.A large group of children followed him, interested in his kind of performance.There was a child who cut his finger. Everyone admired him and surrounded him. Now suddenly no one followed him. It would be a shame.His heart was heavy, but he said contemptuously that it was nothing rare to spit like Tom Sawyer, but he didn't really think so, and another boy said, "Sour grapes!" and he He became a runaway hero. Soon Tom met Huckleberry Finn, a bad boy in the village, who was the son of an alcoholic in the town.All the mothers in the town hated and feared Huckleberry: he was idle, lawless, nasty and ill-bred--and all the children envied him very much.Although the adults did not allow them to have contact with him, they were happy to play with him, and hoped that they would dare to do like him.Like many other decent children, Tom envied Huckleberry's carefree life as a waif, but he was also told sternly: not to play with him.So, he hangs out with him every chance he gets.Huckleberry often wears old clothes discarded by adults, always covered in flowers and rags floating around.His hat was very large and battered, with a crescent-shaped brim drooping down the side.If he was wearing a jacket, it reached almost to his heels, with two rows of buttons in the back all the way to the buttocks; the trousers had only one suspender; the crotch of the trousers hung low like an empty pocket. .When the trouser legs were not rolled up, the frayed lower half dragged around in the dust.

Huckleberry came and went as he pleased.When the weather was nice, he slept on the doorstep; when it rained, he slept in a big empty bucket.He didn't have to go to school or go to church, he didn't have to call a teacher, and he didn't have to obey anyone; he could go fishing and swimming whenever he wanted, and stay as long as he wanted; and no one kept him from fighting; He stayed up at night as long as he pleased; he was always the first to go barefoot in spring, and the last to put on shoes in autumn; he never had to wash his face or put on clean clothes; And especially scolding.In short, everything needed to enjoy life to the fullest, the child had it all.That's what every decent, tortured, chained-up kid in St. Petersburg thinks.

Tom greeted the romantic waif: "Hello, Huckleberry!" "You are also good, you like this thing." "What baby did you get?" "A dead cat." "Huck, let me take a look. Well, this guy's a hard worker. Where did you get it?" "Bought it from a kid." "What do you want in exchange?" "I gave him a blue ticket and a pee bubble from the slaughterhouse." "Where did you get your blue ticket?" "Swapped a hoop stick for Bain Roger two weeks ago." "I say--Huck, what's the use of a dead cat?"

"What's the use? It can cure warts." "No way! Do you think it can be cured? I know there is a better prescription." "I bet you don't know. What's the recipe?" "Isn't it fairy water?" "Fairy water! I don't think fairy water is worth a penny?" "You say it's worth nothing, don't you? Have you tried?" "Not tried. But Bob Downer tried." "How did you know?" "Oh, he told Jeff Thatcher, and Jeff told Johnny Baker, and Johnny told Jim Hollis, and Jim told Ben Roger, and Roger told a black person, and the black person told Tell me. No, I know." "Well, what do you know? They all lie, except maybe the black person. I don't know him, but I've never met a black person who didn't lie. Bah! Then, Huck, tell me about Bob Don How did you try it?" "Oh, and dipped his hand in an old rotten stump to soak in the rain." "During the day?" "of course." "Facing the stump?" "Yes. At least that's how I figured it out." "He didn't say anything?" "I guess not. I don't know." "Ah! What's the talk of ecstasy for warts in such a foolish way! Well, that won't work at all. You'll have to go alone in the middle of the woods, find the stump with the ecstasy, and wait until it's midnight and your back is turned Stump, put your hand in it, and say in your mouth: "Wheat grains, corn flour, saffron water, cure this wart." After reading, close your eyes and walk away immediately. Take one step, then turn around three times, don't talk to anyone and go straight home. If you talk, the spell won't work." "Well, that sounds like a good idea; but that's not what Bob Downer does." "Hey, dear chap, of course he didn't, so he's got the most warts in town. If he knew how to use the ecstasy, he'd have no warts on him. Huck, use I've cured countless warts on my hands that way. I'm always playing with frogs, so I always get lots and lots of warts. Sometimes I take fava beans for them." "Yes, fava beans are good. I have treated them that way too." "Really? How do you do it?" "Take a broad bean and break it into two pieces, then break the wart and get some blood, and then you smear the blood on a piece of broad bean, and when there is no moon in the middle of the night, find a fork in the road and dig a Bury the broad bean in the ground, and burn the other half. You can see that the bloody half of the broad bean keeps sucking and sucking, trying to suck the other half, which helps to suck the wart with blood Son, after a while, the warts will fall off." "Yeah, that's the way it works, Huck--that's the way it is. Of course when you bury the beans, you say, 'Put the beans, get the warts off, and don't bother me again!' That'd be better. Joe. That's what Harper did, and he's pretty much been to Cornwell, and a lot of other places. But then again, how's a dead cat for warts?" 'Well, you go to the cemetery with the dead cat and wait for the bad guys to be buried in the middle of the night; the devils move around in the middle of the night, maybe in twos and threes, but you can't see them, but you can hear them walking, maybe Can hear their conversation.When they take the villain to the underworld, you throw the dead cat behind them and say: 'Ghosts run with corpses, The cat ran away with the ghost, and the wart followed the cat, and wart and I broke it off! 'This way all warts can be cured. " "That sounds quite plausible. Huck, have you tried?" "No. But old Mrs. Hopkins told me." "Yes, she probably did. Because people say she's a witch." "Isn't it, Tom, I know that. She bewitched my father. My father said it himself. He came up one day, and seeing her trying to confuse him, he picked up a big rock, and if she hadn't dodged it In time, he hit her. But that same night, lying on a little wooden roof while drunk, he fell and broke an arm." "Oh, what a pity. How did he know she was going to charm him?" "Oh, my God! My daddy saw it right away. My daddy said they're just looking at you to confuse you, especially when they're chanting a spell. And now they read the Bible prayers backwards." "Hey, I say Huck, when are you going to try this cat for warts?" "Tonight. I reckon they're going for old Hawes Williams." "But wasn't he buried on Saturday? Didn't they come and take him away on Saturday night?" "Hey, here's what you said! How can their spells work after midnight? It's Sunday after midnight. Ghosts don't hang around much when it's Sunday, I suppose." "It never occurred to me. That's the way it is. Let me go with you, will you?" "Of course—as long as you're not afraid." "Scared! That's not enough. Can you learn how to meow?" "Okay. If I yell, you respond. Last time, you told me to keep me like a cat purring, and then the old man Hess threw stones at me and said, 'Fuck the cat. !' So I threw a brick at his window. But don't tell it." "I won't tell. My aunt kept staring at me the other night, how can I meow. But this time I will purr. Hey, what's that?" "Just a tick." "Where did you get it?" "Out there in the woods." "What are you capable of exchanging with you?" "I don't know. I don't want to sell it." "That's all right. Look at your tick, how small it is." "Oh, sour grapes if you can't eat grapes. I'm quite happy with it. The tick is good enough for me." "Well, there are plenty of ticks. I can get a thousand if I want." "Well, come on, come and show me, then. You can't catch it. I think it's an earlier tick, the first I've seen this year." "Then, Huck, I'll trade you my teeth for a tick." "Let me see." Tom took out a small paper packet and opened it carefully.Huckleberry longed for it.The temptation is great.Finally, he said: "Is this a real tooth?" Tom turned his lips to show him the gap. "Well, well then," said Huckleberry, "just change it." After Tom packed the ticks into the same detonator tube that had imprisoned the pincer beetle a few days ago, they parted, each feeling a lot richer than ever. When Tom came to the lonely little wooden-framed school building, he strode into the classroom with a breezy step, as if he had come to school honestly.He hung his hat on a peg, and settled himself in his seat with grave demise.His teacher was sitting high in his big wicker armchair, dozing off to the hypnotic sound of reading.Tom came in and woke him up. "Thomas Sawyer!" Tom knew that trouble would come if the teacher called him by his full name. "Here, teacher!" "Come here, let me ask you. Boy, why are you late, always?" Tom was about to get away with a lie when he saw two long, blond braids hanging down a man's back, and he was startled.A warm current of love made him recognize the girl at once.On the side where the girl was sitting, there happened to be only one vacant seat beside her.He immediately said: "I was delayed talking to Huckleberry Finn on the way!" The teacher's pulse stopped with anger, and he stared helplessly at Tom.The chaotic sound of reading also stopped.The students wondered if there was something wrong with this reckless guy.The teacher said: "You, what did you do?" "Delayed talking to Huckleberry Finn on the way." He made it clear. "Thomas Sawyer, that's the most startling confession I've ever heard. You've made such a big mistake that a ruler won't fix it. Take your coat off!" The teacher beat him until his arms became tired, and he stopped when the whip was obviously worn out.Then he ordered: "Go! Go and sit with the girls, it's a warning to you." There was whispering all over the room, and it seemed to make Tom blush.But in fact, he blushed because he adored that unknown girl and was lucky to be at the same table with her.He sat down on one end of the pine bench, and the girl raised her head and moved her body to the other end.They pushed each other's arms, blinked and whispered.But Tom sat upright, with his arms resting on the long, low desk, as if reading and studying. Gradually, everyone's attention was no longer focused on Tom, and the usual low voice of reading in the school resounded in the dull air.Tom glanced furtively at the girl several times now.She noticed that for a minute after "making a face at him," she turned the back of her head at him.When she turned her face slowly, a peach was placed in front of her.She pushed the peach away and Tom put it back gently.She pushed Tao Zi away again, but this time she was more relaxed.Tom patiently put it back in place.This time she did not refuse.Tom wrote a few words on his clipboard: "Please take it, I have too much." The girl glanced at the words, but still did not move.So Tom covered the clipboard with his left hand and began to draw pictures on it.For a while, the girl was determined not to watch him paint, but driven by curiosity, she began to waver.Tom went on drawing as if he didn't know about it.The girl wanted to see it, but her attitude was not clear, but the boy remained calm and pretended not to see it.Finally she gave in, hesitated and whispered: "Let me see." Tom moved his left hand a little, and the slate showed a house, poorly drawn and vague, with two gables and a wisp of smoke rising from the chimney.But the girl's interest was attracted, so she left everything behind.When the painting was finished, she stared at it for a while, and then said in a low voice: "It's a good drawing—and draw another person." So the "painter" drew a man in the front yard, rising from the ground, a bit like a herringbone crane, and he could step over the house with one stride.But the girl didn't care about that.She is very happy with this big monster.She whispered: "This person is so beautiful to draw. If you draw again, you can draw me as if you are walking over." So Tom drew a water-glass or an hour-glass (both of which can be used as a timer), with a full moon, and limbs stiff like weeds, with outstretched fingers holding a monstrously large fan. The girl said: "It's so good to draw. If only I could draw." "It's easy," said Tom in a low voice, "follow me." "Ah, would you like to? When will you teach me?" "Noon. Are you home for lunch?" "If you teach me, I'll stay here." "Well, that would be great. What's your name?" "Becky Thatcher, what's your name? Oh, I know. Your name is Thomas Sawyer." "That's what they call me when they beat me up. Tom when I'm good. You call me Tom, okay?" "OK." At this time, Tom was writing something on the clipboard again, and covered it with his hand so that the girl could not see it.This time she was not like before.She begged Tom to show her.Tom says: "Ah, nothing to see." "No, there must be something good-looking." "There's really nothing to see. Besides, you don't like this." "I want to see, I really want to. Please let me see." "You'll tell." "No, never, 120 percent not." "Won't you tell anyone? Never tell, never tell for the rest of your life?" "Yes, I won't tell anyone, let me see now." "Ah, do you really want to see it!" "Since you've treated me like this, I must see it!" So she put her little hand on his, and the two argued for a while, Tom pretended to cover his hands to prevent her from seeing, but his hand gradually moved away, revealing Three words: "I love you." "Ah, you villain!" She slapped his hand hard. Although her face was red, she was very happy in her heart. Just then Tom felt someone slowly grabbing his ears and lifting them up.The grasp was extraordinary, and Tom couldn't break free.And just like that, he was dragged from one side of the classroom to his own seat on the other side with his ears clamped amidst a cacophony of giggling.Then the teacher stood beside him for a while, and the room was filled with awe, before he returned to his throne without saying a word.Although Tom felt his ears hurt, his heart was sweet. When the class fell silent, Tom wanted to study hard, but he couldn't calm down inside.As a result, when he read aloud, he read awkwardly; in geography class, he regarded lakes as mountains, and everything was "restored" to the original chaotic state by him; in spelling class, a series of the simplest words made him "turn over As a result, he was at the bottom of the class, so he had to return the medal that he had been wearing for several months to the teacher.