Приключения Тома Сойера / The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Said she:

“Tom, it was warm in school, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, mam.”

“Powerful warm, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, mam.”

“Didn’t you want to go in a-swimming, Tom?”

Tom searched Aunt Polly’s face, but it told him nothing. So he said:

“No, ma—well, not very much.”

The old lady reached out her hand and felt Tom’s shirt, and said:

“But you ain’t too warm now, though.”

Tom knew what was coming, now. So he said:

“Some of us pumped water on our heads—mine’s still damp. See?”

Aunt Polly got upset that she had overlooked that bit of circumstantial evidence.

“Tom, you didn’t have to undo your shirt collar where I sewed it, to pump on your head, did you? Unbutton your jacket!”

Tom opened his jacket. His shirt collar was securely sewed.

“Bother! Well, I was sure you skipped school and went swimming. But I forgive ye, Tom. This time.”

But then Sid, Tom’s younger brother, said:

“You sewed his collar with white thread, but now it’s black.

“Why, I did sew it with white! Tom!”

But Tom did not wait for the rest. As he went out at the door he said:

“Siddy, I’ll lick you for that[3 - I’ll lick you for that—теперь тебе мало не покажется].”

In a safe place Tom examined two large needles that he had stick into the lapels of his jacket. They both had thread attached to them—one needle had white thread and the other black. He said:

“She’d never noticed if it hadn’t been for Sid.

Tom was not the model boy of the village. But Sid was—and Tom hated him sometimes.

Within two minutes, or even less, he had forgotten all his troubles because he found a new interesting activity—whistling. He had learned to whistle a couple of days ago and now he decided to practise it.

The summer evenings were long so he had a lot of time ahead.

Then he saw a stranger boy a little larger than himself. Meeting a new-comer of any age of either sex was an important in the poor little village of St. Petersburg. This boy was well dressed—on a week-day. He even had shoes on—and it was only Friday. You could see that he was from the city. The more Tom stared at the stranger, the higher he turned up his nose and the shabbier his own outfit seemed to him. Neither of the boys spoke.