{"id":"01KG16R6S0FNQZFH5NSYK8FBH1","cid":"bafkreihv7gfz2ccrynfilzdexxdckpzghp4oxnojfm4swefnqpcgxfvf2i","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1459,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T02:26:05.046Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","start_line":1406,"text":"high-backed, uncushioned pews would seat about three hundred persons;\r\nthe edifice was but a small, plain affair, with a sort of pine board\r\ntree-box on top of it for a steeple. At the door Tom dropped back a step\r\nand accosted a Sunday-dressed comrade:\r\n\r\n“Say, Billy, got a yaller ticket?”\r\n\r\n“Yes.”\r\n\r\n“What’ll you take for her?”\r\n\r\n“What’ll you give?”\r\n\r\n“Piece of lickrish and a fish-hook.”\r\n\r\n“Less see ’em.”\r\n\r\nTom exhibited. They were satisfactory, and the property changed hands.\r\nThen Tom traded a couple of white alleys for three red tickets, and some\r\nsmall trifle or other for a couple of blue ones. He waylaid other\r\nboys as they came, and went on buying tickets of various colors ten\r\nor fifteen minutes longer. He entered the church, now, with a swarm\r\nof clean and noisy boys and girls, proceeded to his seat and started\r\na quarrel with the first boy that came handy. The teacher, a grave,\r\nelderly man, interfered; then turned his back a moment and Tom pulled a\r\nboy’s hair in the next bench, and was absorbed in his book when the boy\r\nturned around; stuck a pin in another boy, presently, in order to hear\r\nhim say “Ouch!” and got a new reprimand from his teacher. Tom’s whole\r\nclass were of a pattern—restless, noisy, and troublesome. When they came\r\nto recite their lessons, not one of them knew his verses perfectly, but\r\nhad to be prompted all along. However, they worried through, and each\r\ngot his reward—in small blue tickets, each with a passage of Scripture\r\non it; each blue ticket was pay for two verses of the recitation. Ten\r\nblue tickets equalled a red one, and could be exchanged for it; ten red\r\ntickets equalled a yellow one; for ten yellow tickets the superintendent\r\ngave a very plainly bound Bible (worth forty cents in those easy\r\ntimes) to the pupil. How many of my readers would have the industry and\r\napplication to memorize two thousand verses, even for a Doré Bible? And\r\nyet Mary had acquired two Bibles in this way—it was the patient work of\r\ntwo years—and a boy of German parentage had won four or five. He once\r\nrecited three thousand verses without stopping; but the strain upon his\r\nmental faculties was too great, and he was little better than an idiot\r\nfrom that day forth—a grievous misfortune for the school, for on great\r\noccasions, before company, the superintendent (as Tom expressed it)\r\nhad always made this boy come out and “spread himself.” Only the older\r\npupils managed to keep their tickets and stick to their tedious work\r\nlong enough to get a Bible, and so the delivery of one of these prizes\r\nwas a rare and noteworthy circumstance; the successful pupil was so\r\ngreat and conspicuous for that day that on the spot every scholar’s\r\nheart was fired with a fresh ambition that often lasted a couple\r\nof weeks. It is possible that Tom’s mental stomach had never really\r\nhungered for one of those prizes, but unquestionably his entire being\r\nhad for many a day longed for the glory and the eclat that came with it.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG16PT472H56NVQ9ZDDSFTG1","peer_label":"CHAPTER IV","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","peer_label":"tom_sawyer.txt","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KFXT0KM64XT6K8W52TDEE0YS","peer_label":"More Classics","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG16R6TQ5A5THDNQWENBMBVY","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG16R6TFXZKZ5Y4TXF5CPD1H","peer_label":"Chunk 4","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T02:26:05.531Z","ts":"2026-01-28T02:26:06.561Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}