Chapter 2.
Showing Off in Sunday School At breakfast the next day, Tom was still in a happy mood.
With his belly full of ample portions of Aunt Polly's delicious hot cakes, he couldn't help but reflect on his success with Ben Rogers the day before.
Suddenly, Tom remembered that it was Sunday, and Sunday meant much more than a great breakfast.
As Aunt Polly got out her gold-leaf Bible and announced that it was time for family worship, Tom let out a mournful groan.
An agonizing half an hour later, the boy was excused to memorize his verses for Sunday school.
I done mine yesterday, his brother Sid said, grinning from ear to ear.
Sid then raced out the front door to go play.
Quit fooling around, Tom, Aunt Polly called.
Your cousin Mary will be here any minute now.
Tom trudged off to his room and blew the dust off his tiny Bible.
He had five Bible verses to memorize.
Tom picked the sermon on the mount on account of those being the five shortest verses he could find.
An hour later he woke up face down on the holy book with his cousin Mary's voice ringing in his ear.
Hard at work, I see.
Mary's eyes danced brightly as she took the book from her cousin.
Let me hear you recite.
Tom bent all his energies to remembering what he hadn't read.
"'Blessed are the, uh, um, poor,' Mary prompted.
"'Yes, poor.
Blessed are the poor in spirit.'
And on it went, with Tom stuttering through the verses and Mary reminding him gently.
After a slow and painful hour, Mary announced it was now time for Tom to get dressed for Sunday school.
After another groan from the boy, this one even louder than the one before, Mary helped Tom into his Sunday suit, buttoning his shirt to the top and fastening his necktie tightly.
Tom made a face, feeling every bit as uncomfortable as he looked, as Mary brushed him off and crowned him with a speckled straw hat.
He growled at Sid, who had come in from playing and was laughing at his brother from the doorway.
Although he tried, Tom couldn't think of anything he hated more than Sunday school.
Unlike Tom, his cousin Mary loved going to Sunday school, and she had even won some prizes there.
If you could recite two verses from the Bible, you got a blue ticket from the Sunday school teacher, a tall, slim man with blonde hair and a deep, booming voice named Walter's.
Ten blue tickets were equal to a red ticket, and ten red tickets were equal to a yellow one.
For ten yellow tickets, you could become the proud owner of a plainly bound Bible.
Two thousand verses seemed to Tom a heavy price to pay for such a prize.
But Mary had won two of the Bibles and a German-born boy had laid claim to four or five.
Although Tom had no use for such a prize, he still longed for the glory that came with earning it.
After all, the delivery of the Bibles was a rare and noteworthy event.
The sun shone brightly as Tom slowly walked behind Mary and Sid down the dusty road to Sunday school.
At the door of the church Tom saw Billy, another friend of his, who had also been dragged kicking and screaming into his Sunday best.
Suddenly, Tom got an idea.
Say, Billy, you got a yellow ticket?
Yes.
What do you tank for?
What do you give?
A piece of licorice and a fishhook.
Let's see them.
The goods were examined, and the deal was done.
Tom had a pile of such treasure in his pockets, and before too long he had traded all of it for tickets yellow red, even blue tickets.
When the bell finally rang for church, Tom's pockets were stuffed with tickets.
Mr Walters' Sunday school class was a restless noisy, troublesome bunch of children, and Tom was the worst of them all.
He couldn't resist pulling the hair of the first boy he saw, even though Mr Walters immediately scolded him.
But as soon as Mr. Walters turned his back, Tom poked the boy in front of him with a pin.
"'Ow!' yelled the boy, and Mr. Walters was yelling at Tom again."
Eventually, both Tom and the class settled down and Mr Walters listened patiently as the children stumbled through their verses.
Finally, after everyone had finished reciting, Mr. Walters spoke.
Now children, he announced.
I want you all to sit up as straight and pretty as you can and give me all of your attention.
As much as he tried to listen to what his Sunday school teacher was saying about a new family in town, Tom still felt his eyelids growing heavy.
When they finally fluttered open, he saw that everyone was staring toward the back of the classroom at a chubby middle-aged man with dark hair and spectacles and a very well-dressed and dignified lady.
Although both the man and the woman were quite grand-looking, it was the sight of their younger daughter that caught Tom's eye.
She was a lovely girl with blue eyes and blonde hair plaited into two long tails.
As soon as he saw her face, Tom began making mischief again, pulling hair, making faces and short, doing everything he could think of to try to gain her attention.
After Mr Walters had settled the class down again, he introduced the visitors and seated them in the front of the room.
The chubby man turned out to be Judge Thacker, the greatest judge in the county, and his daughter was named Becky.
Now, thanks in part to Tom, everyone else began showing off.
Mr Walters loudly shouted out instructions, while tending to pupils who were struggling with their reading and wagging fingers at those who were misbehaving.
The students scrapped and scuffled and some filled the air with wads of paper.
All the while, the great Judge Thacker beamed a majestic smile as he presided over the noisy class.
For Mr Walters, there was only one thing missing from the scene the chance to deliver a Bible prize and exhibit one of his best young students to Judge Thacker.
He'd checked with all his star pupils, but no one had more than a few yellow tickets.
Mr Walters had just about given up hope when, of all people, Tom Sawyer came forward holding in his hand nine yellow, nine red and ten blue tickets.
Tom's teacher turned pale.
He hadn't expected to see anything like this for another ten years at least.
Shaking his head in disbelief.
He counted the tickets once twice, then a third time, while Tom grinned from ear to ear.
And just like that, Tom Sawyer now became the envy of the whole class.
The other students stared at him with bitter jealousy, especially those who now knew, too late, what they'd done by trading those tickets.
Tom couldn't resist basking in the glory of the moment as Mr. Walter shook his hand vigorously.
Becky Thatcher looked at Tom with some interest, but Tom didn't dare look in her direction.
He couldn't bear to.
When he was introduced to Judge Thacker, he became so nervous that his tongue was tied and his heart started pounding.
The judge put his hand on Tom's head, gently ruffling his hair, and asked him what his name was.
T-T-T-T-Tom-Thomas?
Tell the gentleman your other name, Mr Walters urged starting to get more than a bit nervous himself.
And don't forget your manners.
Thomas Sawyers, sir.
That's it.
That's a good boy, exclaimed the judge.
And two thousand verses.
That's a great, great many. is what makes great men and good men.
You will be a great man Thomas, and one day you'll say it's all owing to the precious Sunday school privileges of my boyhood.
You'll be glad you spent the time to learn those 2,000 verses.
You won't regret it at all. and the great man eagerly put his hands together.
You wouldn't mind sharing some of that knowledge with me, would you?
No doubt.
You know the names of all twelve disciples.
Would you mind telling us the names of two of them?
Mr. Walters tugged at his collar.
He was starting to sweat, and he stared at Tom, who was now silent and blushing.
Is it possible?
Tom's teacher thought to himself is it really possible?
The boy cannot answer the simplest question.
Poor Tom was tugging at his buttonhole as his mind raced wildly, hoping desperately that he would somehow recall the right names.
Answer the gentleman, Mr. Walter said hopefully.
Don't be afraid.
Now, come along, Thomas, the judge urged, this time a bit more sternly.
The names of the first two disciples were David and Goliath.
And then Tom ran out of the room as the rest of his Sunday school classmates howled with laughter.
