The adventures of Tom Sawyer

HAPPY HOURS. 71
" Yes I do, indeed I do. Please let me."
"You'll tell."
" No I won't—deed and deed and double deed I won't."
" You won't tell anybody at all } Ever, as long as you live " ?
" No I won't ever tell ^?//>'body. Now let me."
" Oh, you don't want to see !
"
*'
Now that you treat me so, I will see." And she put her small hand upon his
and a little scuffle ensued, Tom pretending
to resist in earnest but letting his
hand slip by degrees till these words
were revealed :
" / love you."
" O, you bad thing!" And she hit
his hand a smart rap but reddened and
looked pleased, nevertheless.
Just at this juncture the boy felt a
slow, fateful grip closing on his ear, and \
^
a steady lifting impulse. In that vise he
was borne across the house and deposited
in his own seat, under a peppering fire of
giggles from the whole school.
Then the
master stood over him during a few awful
moments, and
finally moved away to his
INTERRUPTED COURTSHIP.
throne without saying a word. But although
Tom's ear tingled, his heart was jubilant.
As the school quieted down Tom made an honest effort to study, but the
turmoil within him was too great. In turn he took his place in the reading class
and made a botch of it ;
then in the geography class and turned lakes into mountains,
mountains into rivers, and rivers into continents, till chaos was come again;
then in the spelling cl'ass, and got "turned down," by a succession of mere baby
words till he brought up at the foot and yielded up the pewter medal which he
had worn with ostentation for months.