Synopses

Chapter One--Tom Plays, Hides, and Fights:

                  Aunt Polly is  searching for Tom. Tom and his younger brother Sidney(Sid), was sent to live in St. Petersburg, Missouri, after their mother's death. After hearing no answer to her calls, Aunt Polly finds Tom eating out of the jam closet. She was going to beat Tom but Tom managed to get out of it.

                 Aunt Polly tries to make Tom admit that he played hooky and went swimming. Tom had sewn his shirt collar back in place after playing hooky. Aunt Polly apologizes to Tom until Sid  points out that Tom's shirt is sewn together with black thread instead of the white thread that Aunt Polly had used that morning. Tom darts out the door and runs away from the house.

                On the street, Tom runs into a well-dressed boy. Tom and the nameless boy begin to fight each other; Tom wins, the boy threatens Tom and goes away sobbing with anger. Tom returns home late in the evening by climbing through the window.

Chapter Two--The Glorious Whitewasher: 
                    
               Aunt Polly makes Tom whitewash the fence. Jim passes by, and Tom tries to get him to do some of the whitewashing for a marble. Jim almost agrees, but Aunt Polly sees and chases him away.

               A little while later, Ben Roger walks by. Tom convinces Ben that whitewashing a fence is great pleasure, and after some bargaining, Ben agrees to give Tom his apple in exchange of working on the fence. Every boy who passes by Tom will eventually help him whitewash, and each one gives Tom something. By the time the fence has three coats, Tom has collected a bunch of treasures. The moral that Tom found out is basically: You pretend something is extremely hard and a great privilege and pleasure to do, and the other person will beg you to let them try. With this, Tom was able to miscellaneous things, while not having to do any work.  

Chapter Three--Busy at Work and love

Aunt Polly is surprised to find the fence painted, she lets Tom go. On his way, he throws dirt on Sidney  for revenge. In town, a group of boys are fighting a battle. Tom and Joe act as generals. Tom’s army wins the battle.

On his way home, Tom passes the Judge Thatcher's house and catches sight of a beautiful girl. He falls in awe in love with her. Quickly forgetting Amy Lawrence, Tom spends the rest of the afternoon “showing off." The girl tosses him a pansy; Tom goes back home.

At dinner, Sid breaks the sugar bowl, Tom is blamed. Tom feels mistreated, thinking about  how Polly would act if he was to be dead. He goes back to the girl’s house and prepares to die under her window. A maid opens the window and dumps water on his head. Tom goes home to bed.

Chapter Four--Showing Off in Sunday School

Tom tries very hard to memorize Bible verses with the help of cousin Mary; he manages to memorize the verses. Mary gives him a knife. They go to Sunday School.

Tom trades for tickets. The tickets are given for Bible verses, and a student who has memorized 2000 tickets gets a bible. Judge Thatcher and his family-- Along with the the girl--Becky Thatcher are sitting in the front. Tom has enough tickets for a Bible. Mr. Walters knows that Tom has not memorized the verses, but Tom has tickets, so they give him a bible.

The Judge pats Tom on the head and compliments him. He asks, “No doubt you know the names of all the twelve disciples. Won’t you tell us the first two?” Tom blurts randomly, "DAVID AND GOLIATH!"

Chapter 5--The Pinchbug and his Prey

Tom plays with a little pinchbug during a very long and boring church sermon.

Chapter 6--Tom meets Becky

Tom does not want to go to school, but he has to. He pretends he has a toothache, but Aunt Polly is not fooled. He talks with Huckleberry Finn, and he is late to school in talking to him about curing warts with a dead cat. He tells the teacher he is late because he stopped to talk with Huck Finn. The teacher whips him and sends him to the seat next to Becky Thatcher. Becky and Tom get acquainted with each other.

Chapter 7--Tick Running and a HeartBreak

Joe Harper and Tom play around with a pin and a tick. The schoolteacher punishes them when he finds out(when they quarrel loudly), and school is later on dismissed. Tom and Becky "get engaged" by saying they love each other and Tom kissing her. Tom accidentally says that he was engaged to Amy and becky bursts in tears. Tom gives Becky the brass andiron doorknob the Ben Rogers gave him to whitewash.

Chapter 8--A Pirate Bold to Be

Tom wanders to a forest, saying that he will become a pirate, next trying to charm his lost marbles, and meeting Joe Harper. The boys play Robin Hood and then go home, rather "being outlaws in Sherwood Forest for a year than be President of the U.S. forever."

Chapter 9--Tragedy in the Graveyard

Tom and Huck encounter an unplanned murder of Dr. Robinson while trying to cure warts. They saw Injun Joe murder the Doctor and putting the knife in knocked-out, drunk Muff Potter's hand. They were grave-robbing. Injun Joe wakes up Potter and tells him that he murdered the doctor. Huck and Tom, horrified, run off.

Chapter 10--Dire Prophecy of the Howling Dog

The boys swear in blood to never tell anyone that they saw Injun Joe frame Muff Potter as the murderer. The stray dog they see is facing Muff Potter, meaning he may die as a superstition. Tom is dejected that Aunt Polly was so disappointed in him for coming home late, and he goes and sees that Becky has returned the doorknob to him. He was extremely unhappy.

Chapter 11--Conscience Racks Tom