{"id":"01KG16SH2JQKB72817Y5CRJSKK","cid":"bafkreigmoiulpmnxa3wifg7jdd7d7vpfcmbvlczgndrwaw6extwst3tx34","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":4283,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T02:26:48.194Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","start_line":4216,"text":"CHAPTER XV\r\n\r\n\r\nA few minutes later Tom was in the shoal water of the bar, wading toward\r\nthe Illinois shore. Before the depth reached his middle he was halfway\r\nover; the current would permit no more wading, now, so he struck out\r\nconfidently to swim the remaining hundred yards. He swam quartering\r\nupstream, but still was swept downward rather faster than he had\r\nexpected. However, he reached the shore finally, and drifted along till\r\nhe found a low place and drew himself out. He put his hand on his jacket\r\npocket, found his piece of bark safe, and then struck through the woods,\r\nfollowing the shore, with streaming garments. Shortly before ten\r\no’clock he came out into an open place opposite the village, and saw the\r\nferryboat lying in the shadow of the trees and the high bank. Everything\r\nwas quiet under the blinking stars. He crept down the bank, watching\r\nwith all his eyes, slipped into the water, swam three or four strokes\r\nand climbed into the skiff that did “yawl” duty at the boat’s stern. He\r\nlaid himself down under the thwarts and waited, panting.\r\n\r\nPresently the cracked bell tapped and a voice gave the order to “cast\r\noff.” A minute or two later the skiff’s head was standing high up,\r\nagainst the boat’s swell, and the voyage was begun. Tom felt happy in\r\nhis success, for he knew it was the boat’s last trip for the night. At\r\nthe end of a long twelve or fifteen minutes the wheels stopped, and\r\nTom slipped overboard and swam ashore in the dusk, landing fifty yards\r\ndownstream, out of danger of possible stragglers.\r\n\r\nHe flew along unfrequented alleys, and shortly found himself at his\r\naunt’s back fence. He climbed over, approached the “ell,” and looked\r\nin at the sitting-room window, for a light was burning there. There\r\nsat Aunt Polly, Sid, Mary, and Joe Harper’s mother, grouped together,\r\ntalking. They were by the bed, and the bed was between them and the\r\ndoor. Tom went to the door and began to softly lift the latch; then\r\nhe pressed gently and the door yielded a crack; he continued pushing\r\ncautiously, and quaking every time it creaked, till he judged he might\r\nsqueeze through on his knees; so he put his head through and began,\r\nwarily.\r\n\r\n“What makes the candle blow so?” said Aunt Polly. Tom hurried up. “Why,\r\nthat door’s open, I believe. Why, of course it is. No end of strange\r\nthings now. Go ’long and shut it, Sid.”\r\n\r\nTom disappeared under the bed just in time. He lay and “breathed”\r\n himself for a time, and then crept to where he could almost touch his\r\naunt’s foot.\r\n\r\n“But as I was saying,” said Aunt Polly, “he warn’t _bad_, so to say—only\r\nmisch_ee_vous. Only just giddy, and harum-scarum, you know. He warn’t\r\nany more responsible than a colt. _He_ never meant any harm, and he was\r\nthe best-hearted boy that ever was”—and she began to cry.\r\n\r\n“It was just so with my Joe—always full of his devilment, and up to\r\nevery kind of mischief, but he was just as unselfish and kind as he\r\ncould be—and laws bless me, to think I went and whipped him for taking\r\nthat cream, never once recollecting that I throwed it out myself because\r\nit was sour, and I never to see him again in this world, never, never,\r\nnever, poor abused boy!” And Mrs. Harper sobbed as if her heart would\r\nbreak.\r\n\r\n“I hope Tom’s better off where he is,” said Sid, “but if he’d been\r\nbetter in some ways—”\r\n\r\n“_Sid!_” Tom felt the glare of the old lady’s eye, though he could not\r\nsee it. “Not a word against my Tom, now that he’s gone! God’ll take care\r\nof _him_—never you trouble _your_self, sir! Oh, Mrs. Harper, I don’t\r\nknow how to give him up! I don’t know how to give him up! He was such a\r\ncomfort to me, although he tormented my old heart out of me, ’most.”\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG16PT6YJQXFJFCC3WT4ZMCP","peer_label":"CHAPTER XV","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":"01KG16SH06APH43QZZH1YN3EG6","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T02:26:48.882Z","ts":"2026-01-28T02:26:49.876Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}