Приключения Тома Сойера / The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Марк Твен

      “Ben, I’d like to, but Aunt Polly—well, Jim wanted to do it, but she wouldn’t let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn’t let Sid. If you do a bad job—”

      “I’ll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say—I’ll give you the core of my apple.”

      “No, Ben, I’m afraid—”

      “I’ll give you ALL of it!”

      Tom gave the brush to Ben with reluctance in his face, but cheerfulness in his heart . And while the boy worked and sweated in the sun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by, dangled his legs, ate his apple, and planned. By the time Ben got tired, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for a kite; and when he finished, Johnny Miller bought in for a dead rat and a string to swing it with—and so on, and so on, hour after hour. By the afternoon, Tom had become a wealthy boy. Besides the before mentioned things, he had twelve marbles, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a key that wouldn’t unlock anything, a tin soldier, a kitten with only one eye, the handle of a knife, and a lot of other valuable things.

      He had had a nice, good, time, plenty of company—and the fence had three coats of whitewash on it[9].

      Tom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He had discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely, that in order to make a man or a boy want something, it is only necessary to make it difficult to obtain.

      Chapter III

      Tom came to the living-room which was their bedroom, breakfast-room, dining-room, and library at the same time. Aunt Polly was sitting by an open window. She was sure that Tom had left long ago, and she was surprised at seeing him.

      “May I go and play now, aunt?” he asked.

      “What, already? How much have you done?”

      “It’s all done, aunt.”

      “Tom, don’t lie to me—I can’t bear it.”

      “I ain’t, aunt; it is all done.”

      Aunt Polly went out to see for herself. When she found the whole fence whitewashed thoroughly, her astonishment was almost unspeakable.