Tom Sawyer, the Adventures Of

Tom Sawyer, the Adventures Of, novel by Clemens, published in 1876 under his pseudonym Mark Twain. Its classic sequel, Huckleberry Finn, was followed by the relatively unimportant Tom Sawyer Abroad and Tom Sawyer, Detective.

In the drowsy Mississippi River town of St. Petersburg, Mo., Tom Sawyer, imaginative and mischievous, and his priggish brother Sid live with their simple, kind‐hearted Aunt Polly. Sid “peaches” on Tom for playing hooky, and Tom is punished by being made to whitewash a fence, but ingeniously leads his friends to do this job for him by pretending it is a privilege. When his sweetheart, Becky Thatcher, is angered because Tom reveals that he has previously been in love, he forsakes a temporary effort at virtue, plays hooky, and decides to become a pirate or a Robin Hood. With his boon companion, Huck Finn, a good‐natured, irresponsible river rat, Tom goes to a graveyard at midnight to swing a dead cat, an act advised by Huck as a cure for warts. They watch Injun Joe, a half‐breed criminal, stab the town doctor to death and place the knife in the hands of drunken Muff Potter. After being further scolded by Aunt Polly, and further spurned by Becky, Tom, with Huck and Joe Harper, another good friend, hides on nearby Jackson's Island. Their friends believe them drowned, but their funeral service is interrupted by the discovery of the “corpses,” who are listening from the church gallery. Tom returns to school, is reconciled with Becky and his aunt, and becomes a hero at the trial of Muff Potter, when he reveals Injun Joe's guilt. Tom and Becky attend a school picnic, and are lost for several days in a cave, where Tom spies Injun Joe. Later the half‐breed is found dead, and his treasure is divided between Tom and Huck, after which the latter is adopted by the Widow Douglas. His only consolation, since he has surrendered his state of unwashed happiness, lies in Tom's promise to admit him to his robber gang on the strength of his social standing.