The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
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Preface of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Preface. Most of the adventures recorded in this book really occurred. One or two were experiences of my own, the rest those of boys who were schoolmates of mine. Mark Finn is drawn from life, Tom Sawyer also, but not from an individual. He is a combination of the characteristics of three boys whom I knew, and therefore belongs to the composite order of architecture. The odd superstitions touched upon were all prevalent among children and slaves in the West at the period of this story, that is to say, 30 or 40 years ago. Although my book is intended mainly for the entertainment of boys and girls, I hope it will not be shown by men and women on that account, for part of my plan has been to try to pleasantly remind adults of what they once were themselves, and of how they felt and thought and talked, and what queer enterprises they sometimes engaged in. The Author Hartford 1876. End of Preface. Chapter 1 of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Blaine Aidan McCoy, Riverside, California, 2019. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. Chapter 1. Tom! No answer. Tom! No answer. What's gone with that boy, I wonder? You Tom! No answer. The old lady pulled her spectacles down and looked over them about the room. Then she put them up and looked out under them. She seldom or never looked through them, for so small a thing as a boy. They were her state pair, the pride of her heart, and were built for style, not service. She could have seen through a pair of stove lids just as well. She looked perplexed for a moment, and then said, not fiercely, but still loud enough for the furniture to hear, Well, I lay, if I get hold of you, I'll... She did not finish, for by this time she was bending down and punching under the bed with the broom, and so she needed breath to punctuate the punches with. She resurrected nothing but the cat. I never did see the beat of that boy! She went to the open door and stood in it and looked out among the tomato vines and gymson weeds that constituted the garden. No Tom. So she lifted up her voice at an angle calculated for distance and shouted, You Tom! There was a slight noise behind her, and she turned, just in time to seize a small boy by the slack of his roundabout and arrest his flight. There! I might have thought of that, Closet. What have you been doing in there? Nothing. Nothing? Look at your hands, and look at your mouth. What is that, Truck? I don't know, Aunt. Well I know, it's jam. That's what it is.