‘May I go and play now, aunt?’ he asked.
‘What, already? How much have you done?’
‘It’s all done, aunt.’
‘Tom, don’t lie to me – I hate it.’
Aunt Polly went out to see for herself. She found the whole fence whitewashed thoroughly.
She said:
‘So, you can work when you decide to do so, Tom.’ And then she added: ‘But you seldom feel like working. Well, you can go and play.’
She even gave him an apple as a reward. Tom climbed over the fence and was gone.
There was a gate, but usually he preferred to leave this way.
Tom went to the town square, where two “armies” were preparing for battle. Tom was the General of one of them. Tom and his best friend Joe Harper, commanding officer of the other army, ordered their soldiers to fight and then sat by the side chatting.
Tom’s army won a great victory, after a long and hard battle. Then the dead were counted, prisoners exchanged, and the day for the next battle was chosen; the armies walked away, and Tom went home.
On his way back, he passed the house of his schoolmate Jeff Thatcher. In the yard he noticed a beautiful girl who immediately won his heart. Tom forgot his girlfriend, Amy Lawrence right at once.
When he was sure the strange girl was watching, he began to show off, acting like a fool, doing all sorts of silly tricks. Although the girl seemed not to pay attention, she threw a flower to him just before she went into the house.
Tom tried to act indifferent, but then he ran and took the flower between his toes when he was sure that the girl was gone.
He stayed around the house for the rest of the evening, hoping to see the girl again, but she did not return, so he went back home.
Tom was so happy with his new love that he even wasn’t offended when Aunt Polly accused him of stealing sugar. (Actually, Sid had committed this crime). When the old lady shouted at him and hit him he cried:
‘Sid was stealing sugar and brought the sugar-bowl!’
Aunt Polly stopped, embarrassed and only said:
‘I’m sure you have done something wrong, only I don’t know what it was!’
* * *
On Sunday after breakfast Tom went to learn ‘his verses’ from the Bible. Sid had learned his lesson days before. At the end of half an hour Tom had a general idea of his lesson, but no more.
Mary, his elder cousin, promised to give him a present if he learned the lesson well.