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 a city boy. The more Tom stared at the
stranger, the higher he turned up his nose. He could feel that his own clothes were old and poor. Neither of the boys spoke. If one moved, the other moved – but only to the side; so they were moving in a circle;
keeping face to face and eye to eye all the time.
Finally Tom started a usual dialogue. Each of the boys said he was going to beat the other one. And each said he had an elder brother who could also beat the other’s elder brother.
Finally they fought.
They were rolling in the dirt, tearing each other’s hair and clothes, covering themselves with dust and glory.
Tom won.
The new boy went off brushing the dust from his clothes, sobbing, and shouting what he would do to Tom the ‘next time he caught him.’
When Tom’s turned to go, the new boy took a stone, threw it, hit him Tom between the shoulders and then ran away as fast as he could. Tom chased him home, and waited at the gate for some time, inviting the enemy to come outside. At last the enemy’s mother appeared, and called Tom a bad, evil child.
Tom got home rather late that night, and when he climbed in through the window, he was caught by his aunt immediately. When she saw the state of his clothes she decided that Tom would not enjoy his Saturday.
* * *
Saturday morning came, and all the summer world was bright and fresh. There was a song in every heart and a smile on every face. But Tom was not very happy when he appeared in the street with a bucket of whitewash and a long-handled brush. When he looked at the fence, so long and high, he felt depressed.
Then he saw Jim, a slave boy, who was running out of the gate with a bucket. Tom himself had always hated bringing water from the town pump. But it seemed better than whitewashing. Tom said:
‘I say, Jim, I’ll bring the water if you whitewash a part of the fence.’
Jim shook his head and said:
‘I can’t, master Tom. Your aunt said you had to do it all. She’ll be angry if she learns that I helped you.’
When the boys noticed Aunt Polly coming out of the house Jim ran away with his bucket and Tom started whitewashing. But his energy did not last. He began to think of the fun he had planned for this day.