Tom Sawyer paints the fence

On Saturday morning, every boy in town was happy, except Tom Sawyer.

Tom’s aunt gave him a task of painting their fence. It was 30 yards long and 3 yards high. He painted one board and surveyed his progress, and then he sat down to have a rest.

Tom began to think of the games that he wanted to play. He knew the boys who were free would soon come along and make fun of him. Just then, he had an idea. He picked up his brush and went back to work.

Ben Rogers came along the road. He was singing happily and carrying an apple. 

“I’m going swimming,” said Ben. “Do you want to come? Oh, you have to work, don’t you? What a pity!”

“Work?” said Tom. “This isn’t work. I’m enjoying myself. Does a boy get a change to paint a fence like this every day?” Then he went on painting. 

Ben watched Tom in silence. He became more and more interested.

After a while, he said, “Tom, will you let me do some painting?”

Tom said, “No, Ben, I can’t. Aunt Polly warned me to do it well. I’m the only person that can do it right."

“Oh, please, Tom,” said Ben. “I can do it. I’ll be really careful. I’ll give you half my apple. Wait, I’ll give you all of it.”

“That’s a deal,” said Tom. “But you must be careful.”

Tom gave Ben his brush with worry on his face but joy in his heart. He sat down again and started to eat the apple.

When Ben got tired, Billy Fisher was waiting. He gave Tom a kite for the chance to paint. Then Johnny Miller offered him two toy soldiers.

Soon Tom had got many new toys, and the fence got three coats of paint. Aunt Polly was so pleased that she gave Tom a big apple!

Tom and Becky in the cave

Tom and Becky walked into the cave. They held their candles high and saw names and dates which were written on the walls by other people. Suddenly they were in a part of the cave without any writing on the walls. They used candle smoke to write their own names on the rock and then walked on.

Soon they came to a little stream of water. The cave wall looked like a frozen waterfall. Tom went behind the stone waterfall and found an opening in the rock. They started to walk down into the earth. They went deeper and deeper into the cave. Tom and Becky made many candle smoke marks on the walls to show the way back. It was exciting.

They soon found themselves in a huge open space that was full of bats. There were thousands of them. The light from their candles woke up the bats, and they flew at the candle flames. Tom knew this was dangerous, so he took Becky’s hand to hurry her away, but one of the bats followed and put out Becky’s candle with its wings. The bats followed them for a long time, but Tom and Becky ran into every new passage that they came to,  and at last they got away from the bats.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

After his success with The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Mark Twain wrote Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, about Tom Sawyer’s best friend Huck Finn.

Most of the book is about Huck’s adventures with a runaway slave who is trying to find freedom.

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is considered to be Mark Twain’s best book, and many people think it is one of the best novels written in English.