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 Tom Sawyer – Part
Sixty
Before you read the text, read the following comprehension questions.
Now read the text and answer the questions.
During the break Tom continued to flirt with Amy
and they walked around together. Tom, all the time, looking for Becky.
At last, he saw her, but he was shocked. She was sitting on a little bench
behind the schoolhouse looking at a book with Alfred Temple. They were so close
together, their heads nearly touching, that they did not seem to be conscious of
anything in the world besides the book and each other. 
Jealousy ran red-hot through Tom's veins. He began to hate himself for throwing
away the chance Becky had offered for a reconciliation. He called himself a fool,
and all the hard names he could think of. He wanted to cry with anxiety.
Amy chatted happily to him, as they walked together, for her heart was singing,
but Tom's tongue wasn’t working. He did not hear what Amy was saying, and
whenever she paused, he could only make a noise which made no sense to Amy.
He kept walking around to the back of the schoolhouse, again and again, to see
the horrible sight with his own eyes. He could not help it.
And it made him angry to see, as he thought he saw, that Becky Thatcher never
once suspected that he was even in the world. But she did see, nevertheless, and
she knew she was winning her fight, too. She was glad to see him suffer as she
had suffered.
Amy's happy chatting became intolerable. Tom said that he had to do some things
and time was passing, but Amy kept on talking. Tom thought, "Oh, am I never
going to get rid of her?"
At last, he insisted on leaving and she said that she would be "around" when
school finished. Tom walked away quickly, hating her for it.
"Any other boy!" Tom thought, grinding his teeth. "Any boy in the whole town
except that Alfred Temple with is fine clothes and his fancy manner.
You just wait till I catch you! I'll just beat you to the ground and ….."
Tom imagined hitting and kicking the boy. Holding him down and hitting him in
the face. He continued his imaginary attack until he was satisfied.
Tom went home at noon. His conscience could not bear any more of Amy's grateful
happiness, and he could stand no more of those jealous feelings.
Becky continued her picture inspections with Alfred, but as the time passed and
Tom was not there to suffer, her triumph began to cloud and she lost interest.
She became sad and looked out for Tom, but he did not appear. At last she grew
entirely miserable and wished she hadn't carried it so far.
Poor Alfred, seeing that he was losing her, without understanding why, kept
saying: "Oh, here's a nice one! look at this!"
Becky lost patience at last, and said, "Oh, don't bother me! I’m not interested
in them!". She burst into tears, got up and walked away.
Alfred walked next to her and was going to try to comfort her, but she said:
"Go away and leave me alone! I hate you!"
So, the boy stopped, wondering what he could have done. She had said she would
look at pictures all afternoon.
Becky walked away, crying. Then Alfred went slowly into the deserted schoolhouse.
He was humiliated and angry. He easily arrived at the truth. She had simply
taken advantage of him to get her own back on Tom Sawyer.
He hated Tom more when he realized this. He wished there was a way to get that
boy into trouble without any risk to himself.
He saw Tom's spelling book on his desk. Here was his opportunity. He opened the
book to the lesson for the afternoon and poured ink on the page.
Becky was looking through a window behind him and saw him do it. She moved on
quickly, without Alfred knowing.
She started to walk home, now, intending to find Tom and tell him. Tom would be
thankful and their troubles would be over. Before she was half way home, however,
she had changed her mind.
She remembered how she had felt when she was talking about her picnic and how
Tom had treated her. She decided to let him get punished for the damaged
spelling book, and to hate him forever.
... to be continued!
* The text has been adapted from the Adventures
of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
Download the
original book for free
*Consulta
un PDF con la información y resumen de 100 libros en inglés
que puedes descargar en 1 único archivo.
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Now read the text and answer the questions.
Tom arrived home in a bad mood, and the first
thing his aunt said to him made him feel even worse:
"Tom, I'm going to kill you!"
"Auntie, what have I done?"
"Well, you've done enough. I went over to see Sereny Harper, like an idiot,
expecting her her to believe all that rubbish about that dream, when, apparently,
she’d found out from Joe that you were actually here in the room and had heard
everything we’d said that night. Tom, I don't know what made you do it. It makes
me feel so bad to think you could let me go to Sereny Harper and make such a
fool of myself and never say a word."
This was something new. Everything had seemed to Tom a good joke before, and
very clever. Now it only looked mean and unkind. He looked at the floor and
could not think of anything to say for a moment. Then he said:
"Auntie, I wish I hadn't done it but I didn't think."
"Oh, Tom, you never think. You never think of anything but yourself. You thought
to come over here from Jackson's Island during the night to laugh at our
troubles, and you thought about telling a lie about a dream, but you couldn't
think to pity us and stop us feeling sad."
"Auntie, I know now it was mean, but I didn't mean to be mean. I didn't, honest.
And besides, I didn't come over here to laugh at you that night."
"What did you come for, then?"
"To tell you not to worry about us, because we hadn't drowned."
"Tom, Tom, I would be more than happy to believe you’d had as good a thought as
that, but you know you never did and I know it, to, Tom."
"That’s not true. I did, auntie, I swear I did."
"Oh, Tom, please don't lie. It only makes things a hundred times worse."
"I’m not lying, auntie; it's the truth. I didn’t want you to be sad. That was
why I came."
"I wish I could believe that. I’d feel a lot better, Tom. I'd be happy you'd run
off and acted so bad. But it doesn’t make sense. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Well, when you started talking about the funeral, I just got the idea to come
and hide in the church, and I didn’t want to spoil it. So, I just put the bark
back in my pocket and said nothing."
"What bark?"
"The bark I wrote the message on to tell you we'd gone away to be pirates. I
wish you had woken up when I kissed you, honestly."
The hard lines in his aunt's face relaxed and a sudden tenderness dawned in her
eyes.
"Did you kiss me, Tom?"
"Yes, I did."
"Are you sure you did, Tom?"
"Yes, I did, auntie. I’m sure."
"Why did you kiss me, Tom?"
"Because I loved you so much, and you were lying there in pain and moaning and I
was so sorry."
The words sounded like the truth. The old lady could not hide a tremor in her
voice when she said:
"Kiss me again, Tom! and go to school, now, and don't bother me anymore."
As soon as he left, she ran to the wardrobe and took out his jacket which Tom
had gone pirating in. Then she stopped, with it in her hand, and said to herself:
"No, I can’t look. Poor boy, I’m sure he's lied about it. But it’s a good lie, a
kind lie. I know the Lord will forgive him, because it was meant in a good way.
But I don't want to find out it's a lie. I won't look."
She put the jacket away, and stood there, thinking. Twice she put out her hand
to pick up the jacket again, and twice she stopped herself.
She reached for it again, and this time she made the excuse that: "It's a good
lie. It's a good lie. I won't let it upset me."
She reached into the jacket pocket. A moment later she was reading Tom's piece
of bark through flowing tears and saying: "I could forgive the boy, now, if he'd
committed a million sins!"
... to be continued!
* The text has been adapted from the Adventures
of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain
Download the
original book for free
*Consulta
un PDF con la información y resumen de 100 libros en inglés
que puedes descargar en 1 único archivo.
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