[CHAPTER XVIII.]
Tom's Feelings Investigated—Wonderful Dream
—Becky Thatcher Overshadowed
—Tom Becomes Jealous—Black Revenge [CHAPTER XIX.]
Tom Tells the Truth [CHAPTER XX.]
Becky in a Dilemma
—Tom's Nobility Asserts Itself [CHAPTER XXI.]
Youthful Eloquence—Compositions by the
Young Ladies—A Lengthy Vision
—The Boy's Vengeance Satisfied [CHAPTER XXII.]
Tom's Confidence Betrayed
—Expects Signal Punishment

ILLUSTRATIONS

[Amy Lawrence]
[Tom tries to Remember]
[The Hero]
[A Flirtation]
[Becky Retaliates]
[A Sudden Frost]
[Counter-irritation]
[Aunt Polly]
[Tom justified]
[The Discovery]
[Caught in the Act]
[Tom Astonishes the School]
[Literature]
[Tom Declaims]
[Examination Evening]
[On Exhibition]
[Prize Authors]
[The Master's Dilemma]
[The School House]
[The Cadet]
[Happy for Two Days]
[Enjoying the Vacation]
[The Stolen Melons]

CHAPTER XVIII

THAT was Tom's great secret—the scheme to return home with his brother pirates and attend their own funerals. They had paddled over to the Missouri shore on a log, at dusk on Saturday, landing five or six miles below the village; they had slept in the woods at the edge of the town till nearly daylight, and had then crept through back lanes and alleys and finished their sleep in the gallery of the church among a chaos of invalided benches.

At breakfast, Monday morning, Aunt Polly and Mary were very loving to Tom, and very attentive to his wants. There was an unusual amount of talk. In the course of it Aunt Polly said:

"Well, I don't say it wasn't a fine joke, Tom, to keep everybody suffering 'most a week so you boys had a good time, but it is a pity you could be so hard-hearted as to let me suffer so. If you could come over on a log to go to your funeral, you could have come over and give me a hint some way that you warn't dead, but only run off."