{"id":"01KG16TPFMVPPQS2NCKZ1ZRAJ7","cid":"bafkreihqxrkchc65q232mfiwxlbkowdbnbsvhaxgbryjnacpje6ek6wnzq","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":5793,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T02:27:26.538Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 1","source_file":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","start_line":5730,"text":"CHAPTER XXII\r\n\r\n\r\nTom joined the new order of Cadets of Temperance, being attracted by the\r\nshowy character of their “regalia.” He promised to abstain from smoking,\r\nchewing, and profanity as long as he remained a member. Now he found out\r\na new thing—namely, that to promise not to do a thing is the surest way\r\nin the world to make a body want to go and do that very thing. Tom soon\r\nfound himself tormented with a desire to drink and swear; the desire\r\ngrew to be so intense that nothing but the hope of a chance to display\r\nhimself in his red sash kept him from withdrawing from the order. Fourth\r\nof July was coming; but he soon gave that up—gave it up before he had\r\nworn his shackles over forty-eight hours—and fixed his hopes upon old\r\nJudge Frazer, justice of the peace, who was apparently on his deathbed\r\nand would have a big public funeral, since he was so high an official.\r\nDuring three days Tom was deeply concerned about the Judge’s condition\r\nand hungry for news of it. Sometimes his hopes ran high—so high that\r\nhe would venture to get out his regalia and practise before the\r\nlooking-glass. But the Judge had a most discouraging way of fluctuating.\r\nAt last he was pronounced upon the mend—and then convalescent. Tom was\r\ndisgusted; and felt a sense of injury, too. He handed in his resignation\r\nat once—and that night the Judge suffered a relapse and died. Tom\r\nresolved that he would never trust a man like that again.\r\n\r\nThe funeral was a fine thing. The Cadets paraded in a style calculated\r\nto kill the late member with envy. Tom was a free boy again,\r\nhowever—there was something in that. He could drink and swear, now—but\r\nfound to his surprise that he did not want to. The simple fact that he\r\ncould, took the desire away, and the charm of it.\r\n\r\nTom presently wondered to find that his coveted vacation was beginning\r\nto hang a little heavily on his hands.\r\n\r\nHe attempted a diary—but nothing happened during three days, and so he\r\nabandoned it.\r\n\r\nThe first of all the negro minstrel shows came to town, and made a\r\nsensation. Tom and Joe Harper got up a band of performers and were happy\r\nfor two days.\r\n\r\nEven the Glorious Fourth was in some sense a failure, for it rained\r\nhard, there was no procession in consequence, and the greatest man\r\nin the world (as Tom supposed), Mr. Benton, an actual United States\r\nSenator, proved an overwhelming disappointment—for he was not\r\ntwenty-five feet high, nor even anywhere in the neighborhood of it.\r\n\r\nA circus came. The boys played circus for three days afterward in tents\r\nmade of rag carpeting—admission, three pins for boys, two for girls—and\r\nthen circusing was abandoned.\r\n\r\nA phrenologist and a mesmerizer came—and went again and left the village\r\nduller and drearier than ever.\r\n\r\nThere were some boys-and-girls’ parties, but they were so few and so\r\ndelightful that they only made the aching voids between ache the harder.\r\n\r\nBecky Thatcher was gone to her Constantinople home to stay with her\r\nparents during vacation—so there was no bright side to life anywhere.\r\n\r\nThe dreadful secret of the murder was a chronic misery. It was a very\r\ncancer for permanency and pain.\r\n\r\nThen came the measles.\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 1"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG16PT7G1JXDEYTH7P9HT7M1","peer_label":"CHAPTER XXII","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":"01KG16TPFN0AP9K33BJXJK6DZ7","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T02:27:27.005Z","ts":"2026-01-28T02:27:27.903Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}