St Nicholas [serial] . tump, aint you ! exclaimedBen. No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eyeof an artist, then he gave his brush another gentle sweepand surveyed the result as before. Ben ranged up along-side of him. Toms mouth watered for the apple, but hestuck to his work. Ben said: Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey ? Tom wheeled suddenly, and said : Why, it s you, Ben ! I war nt noticing. Say, / m going in swimming, / am. Dont you wishyou could ? But of course you d druther work — would ntyou ? Course you would ! Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: What do you call wo
St Nicholas [serial] . tump, aint you ! exclaimedBen. No answer. Tom surveyed his last touch with the eyeof an artist, then he gave his brush another gentle sweepand surveyed the result as before. Ben ranged up along-side of him. Toms mouth watered for the apple, but hestuck to his work. Ben said: Hello, old chap, you got to work, hey ? Tom wheeled suddenly, and said : Why, it s you, Ben ! I war nt noticing. Say, / m going in swimming, / am. Dont you wishyou could ? But of course you d druther work — would ntyou ? Course you would ! Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said: What do you call work ? Why, aint that work ? Tom resumed his whitewashing and answered carelessly : Well, maybe it is, and maybe it aint. All I know is,it suits Tom Sawyer. Oh, come now, you dont mean to let on you like it ? The brush continued to move. Like it ? Well, I dont see why I ought nt to likeit. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence everyday ? A little more of this, and Ben naturally grows i9io.] BOOKS AND READING 361. wild to try the thing himself, and presently hebegs Tom to let him have a turn at it. Tom considered, was about to consent; but he alteredhis mind. No — no — I reckon it wouldnt hardly do, see, Aunt Polly s awful particular about this fence —right here on the street, you know — but if it was the backfence I would nt mind, and she would nt. I reckonthere aint one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand,that can do it the way it ought to be done ! Perhaps you will guess that before the after-noon is over Tom has had a pretty good time onaccount of that fence. And he has. He haseaten Bens apple, for one thing. I only wish Iwere going to read about him again for the firsttime, as, after all, many of you will. For I sup-pose it s impossible for you all to have readToms story, since there must be a time when onehas nt done even the nicest things. You will see, when you read these two books,that, although they are so different, they haveone thing in commo
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