Page 63 - the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer

She begged to see. Tom said:
‘Oh, it ain’t anything.’
‘Yes it is.’
‘No it ain’t. You don’t want to see.’
‘Yes I do, indeed I do. Please let me.’
‘You’ll tell.’
‘No I won’t — deed and deed and double deed won’t.’
‘You won’t tell anybody at all? Ever, as long as you live?’
‘No, I won’t ever tell ANYbody. Now let me.’
‘Oh, YOU don’t want to see!’
‘Now that you treat me so, I WILL see.’ And she put
her small hand upon his and a little scuffle ensued, Tom
pretending to resist in earnest but letting his hand slip by
degrees till these words were revealed: ‘I LOVE YOU.’
‘Oh, you bad thing!’ And she hit his hand a smart rap, but
reddened and looked pleased, nevertheless.
Just at this juncture the boy felt a slow, fateful grip closing
on his ear, and a steady lifting impulse. In that vise he was
borne across the house and deposited in his own seat, under
a peppering fire of giggles from the whole school. Then the
master stood over him during a few awful moments, and fi-
nally moved away to his throne without saying a word. But
although Tom’s ear tingled, his heart was jubilant.
As the school quieted down Tom made an honest effort
to study, but the turmoil within him was too great. In turn
he took his place in the reading class and made a botch of
it; then in the geography class and turned lakes into moun-
tains, mountains into rivers, and rivers into continents, till
chaos was come again; then in the spelling class, and got

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer