Tom joined a youth club called the Cadets of Temperance. He liked the badge and the clothes they wore. He promised not to smoke, drink alcohol, swear or chew tobacco as long as he was a member.

Now he found out a new thing. When you promise not to do something, that’s the best way to want to go and do it.

Tom soon found himself tormented with a desire to drink and swear. The desire grew to be so intense that nothing but the hope of a chance to wear the club’s red sash kept him from leaving it.

Fourth of July was coming. It was a chance for Tom to wear his uniform and club colours. But he wasn’t allowed. His next hope was old Judge Frazer, justice of the peace, who was very sick and about to die. Apparently, he would have a big public funeral because he was such a high public official.

For three days Tom followed the Judge's condition closely. Hoping for news of his death so he could wear his club’s uniform in public.

He was so excited that he often took out his red sash and practise in front of the mirror. But the Judge’s health has a disappointing way of going up and down until finally he made a complete recovery.

Tom was disgusted and felt a sense of injury, too. He handed in his resignation from the club immediately and that same night the judge became ill again and died.

Tom decided that he would never trust a man like that again.

The funeral was impressive. The Cadets paraded in a way that seemed to be designed to kill Tom with envy.

On the other hand, Tom was a free boy again and that was something to celebrate. He could drink and swear, now. Surprisingly, he discovered that he did not want to. The simple fact that he could, took away the attraction.

Tom was surprised to realise that his holiday was beginning to get a bit boring.

He tried to write a diary but nothing happened for three days, and so he stopped it.

A travelling music show arrived in the town, and made a sensation. Tom and Joe Harper started a performing group of their own and were happy for two days.

Even the Fourth of July celebration was in some sense a failure because it rained a lot. As a result, there was no procession in the street, and the greatest man in the world (according to Tom), Mr. Benton, an actual United States Senator, was a complete disappointment. He was not twenty - five feet high, not even close.

A circus came to town. The boys played circus for three days afterwards in tents made of old pieces of rag and cloth. The admission price was three pins for boys, two for girls. But then they abandoned the idea of a circus.

A mind reader and a hypnotist came, and went again, and left the village sadder and more boring than ever.

There were some boys-and-girls' parties, but they were so few and so enjoyable that they only made the difficult times between even harder to bear.

Becky Thatcher had gone to her holiday home to stay with her parents, so there was no bright side to life anywhere.

The dreadful secret of the murder was a permanent misery. It was a constant reminder of terrible pain.

Then the measles came.

For two long weeks Tom lay a prisoner, dead to the world and its happenings.

He was very ill and he was interested in nothing. When he finally stood up and moved weakly down into the centre, he saw that a sad change had come over everything and every creature.

There had been a "revival," and everybody had "got religion," not only the adults, but even the boys and girls.

Tom walked around, hoping to see someone normal, but there was disappointment everywhere. There was nobody bad left.

He found Joe Harper studying a bible, and turned sadly away from the depressing scene.

He found Ben Rogers who was visiting the poor with a basket of food.

He spoke to Jim Hollis, who told him that Tom had caught the measles as a warning not to sin.

Every boy he found made his depression worse. And when, in desperation, he ran to Huckleberry Finn he was received with a Scriptural quotation, his heart broke and he went home and to bed realizing that he alone
of all the town was lost, forever and forever.

And that night there came on a terrific storm, with heavy rain and thunder and lightning. He covered his head with his sheet and waited in a horror of suspense for his end. He was sure that all this was about him. He believed he had gone to far with the powers above and that this was the result.

Eventually the storm died down and Tom had survived. The boy's first impulse was to be grateful, and reform. His second was to wait. There might not be any more storms.

The next day the doctors were back to see Tom. He had gotten worse. The three weeks he spent on his back this time seemed an eternity.

When he finally felt well enough to get out of bed, he wasn’t particularly grateful to still be alive. He had been so lonely and friendless. He walked down the street and found Jim Hollis acting as judge in a juvenile court that was trying a cat for murder, in the presence of her victim, a bird.
Then he saw Joe Harper and Huck Finn in an alley eating a stolen melon.

Poor boys! They, like Tom, had been very sick.

... to be continued!

* The text has been adapted from the Adventures of Tom Sawyer
by Mark Twain

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