Приключения Тома Сойера / The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
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He wandered for a bit. He saw a log raft in the river, and sat down on its outer edge and contemplated the dreary vastness of the stream. Then he thought of his flower.
He got it out, looked at it, and it improved his mood. He wondered if she would pity him if she knew? Would she cry? Or would she turn coldly away like all the hollow world?
This picture brought such an agony of pleasurable suffering that he thought about it again and again. At last he rose up sighing and walked away.
About half-past nine or ten o’clock he came along the deserted street to where the Adored Unknown lived; he paused a moment; heard nothing. A candle was casting a dull glow upon the curtain of a second-story window. Was she there? He climbed the fence, carefully walked through the plants, and stood under that window. He looked up at it long, and with emotion; then he laid down on the ground under it, with his hands clasped on his chest and holding his flower. He thought that here he would die—out in the cold world, with no shelter over his homeless head. And she would see him in the morning, and oh! would she drop one little tear upon his poor, lifeless body …
The window went up, a maid-servant’s voice said something loudly, and a deluge of water drenched him from head to toe.
Tom sprang up. There was a whiz as of a missile in the air, mingled with the murmur of a curse, and a small form went over the fence and into the darkness.
Chapter IV
On Sunday after breakfast Tom went to learn “his verses” [11] from the Bible. Sid had learned his lesson days before.
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went to learn ‘his verses’ –
Tom tried very hard to the memorize the five verses, and he chose part of the Sermon on the Mount, because he could find no verses that were shorter.
At the end of half an hour Tom had a vague general idea of his lesson, but no more. His cousin Mary took his book to hear him recite, and he tried his best:
“Blessed are the—a—a—”
“Poor—”
“Yes—poor; blessed are the poor—a—a—”
“In spirit—”
“In spirit; blessed are the poor in spirit, for they—they—”
“Theirs—”
“For theirs. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn, for they—they—”
“Sh—”
“For they—a—”
“S, H, A—”
“For they S, H—Oh, I don’t know what it is!”
“Shall!”
“Oh, shall! for they shall—for they shall—a—a—shall mourn—a—a—blessed are they that shall—they that—a—they that shall mourn, for they shall—a—shall what? Why don’t you tell me, Mary?—what do you want to be so mean for?”
“Oh, Tom, I’m not teasing you. I wouldn’t do that. You must go and learn it again. Don’t you be discouraged, Tom, you’ll manage it—and if you do, I’ll give you something ever so nice. There, now, that’s a good boy.”
“All right! What is it, Mary, tell me what it is.”
“Never you mind, Tom. You know if I say it’s nice, it is nice.”
“You bet you that’s so, Mary. All right, I’ll tackle it again.”
That made Tom do his best—and be a success. Mary gave him a brand-new “Barlow” knife worth twelve and a half cents; and the convulsion of delight that swept his system shook him to his foundations. True, the knife would not cut anything, but it was a “sure-enough” Barlow. He was going to try the knife on the furniture when he was called off to dress for Sunday-school.
Mary took care of the process. She made Tom put on a suit that had been used only on Sundays during two years. He now looked much better and felt very uncomfortable. He hoped that Mary would forget his shoes, but she asked Tom to put them on:
“Please, Tom—that’s a good boy.”
So he got into the shoes. Mary was soon ready, and the three children went to Sunday-school—a place that Tom hated with his whole heart; but Sid and Mary were fond of it.
At the door Tom asked another pupil:
“I say, Billy, have you got a yellow ticket?”
“Yes.”
“What’ll you take for it?”
“What’ll you give?”
“Piece of liquorish and a fish-hook.”
So he exchanged one of his “treasures” for a yellow ticket. Then Tom traded a couple of other small things for three red tickets, and a couple of blue ones. He went on buying tickets of different colours ten or fifteen minutes longer.
Then the lesson began. Almost all the children in Tom’s class were noisy, and troublesome. When they came to recite their lessons, no one knew his verses well. However, each pupil got his reward—in small blue tickets; each blue ticket was pay for two learned verses. Ten blue tickets could be exchanged for a red one; and ten red tickets could be exchanged for a yellow one. For ten yellow tickets Mr. Walters (the teacher) gave a very cheap Bible (worth forty cents) to the pupil. So, to get it a pupil had to learn two thousand verses. Mary had collected two Bibles in this way—it cost her two years of work.
Frankly speaking, Tom has never been interested in getting such a prize, but he wanted the glory and success.
In the middle of the lesson Mr. Walters said to the pupils:
“Now, children, I want you all to sit up just as straight and pretty as you can and give me all your attention for a minute or two. There—that is it. That is the way good little boys and girls should do. I see one little girl who is looking out of the window—I am afraid she thinks I am out there somewhere—perhaps up in one of the trees making a speech to the little birds. I want to tell you how good it makes me feel to see so many bright, clean little faces assembled in a place like this, learning to do right and be good.” And so forth and so on.
The latter third of the speech was marred by the recollection of fights among certain of the bad boys, and by the whisperings of the class.
A good part of the whispering was due to the entrance of visitors: Judge Thatcher, brother of the village lawyer and a well-dressed lady, his wife. The lady was leading a child—the girl whom he had already met once and who became his “new love”. When Tom saw this girl he began showing off with all his might [12] —beating other boys, pulling hair, making faces—in a word, he did everything he could to win the girl’s heart.
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with all his might –