{"id":"01KG177EQVZJ44PHQZVXHVHC4P","cid":"bafkreihmjncpfp564gidcswwfiz5xzvtnwb3pb3el6ztehev2qklhwbzom","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":1065,"extracted_at":"2026-01-28T02:34:24.728Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 3","source_file":"01KG0K71QZ8KK7RGEGSNTB5534","start_line":989,"text":"That put the thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple.\r\nTom swept his brush daintily back and forth—stepped back to note the\r\neffect—added a touch here and there—criticised the effect again—Ben\r\nwatching every move and getting more and more interested, more and more\r\nabsorbed. Presently he said:\r\n\r\n“Say, Tom, let _me_ whitewash a little.”\r\n\r\nTom considered, was about to consent; but he altered his mind:\r\n\r\n“No—no—I reckon it wouldn’t hardly do, Ben. You see, Aunt Polly’s awful\r\nparticular about this fence—right here on the street, you know—but if it\r\nwas the back fence I wouldn’t mind and _she_ wouldn’t. Yes, she’s awful\r\nparticular about this fence; it’s got to be done very careful; I reckon\r\nthere ain’t one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, that can do it\r\nthe way it’s got to be done.”\r\n\r\n“No—is that so? Oh come, now—lemme just try. Only just a little—I’d let\r\n_you_, if you was me, Tom.”\r\n\r\n“Ben, I’d like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly—well, Jim wanted to do\r\nit, but she wouldn’t let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn’t let\r\nSid. Now don’t you see how I’m fixed? If you was to tackle this fence\r\nand anything was to happen to it—”\r\n\r\n“Oh, shucks, I’ll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say—I’ll give you\r\nthe core of my apple.”\r\n\r\n“Well, here—No, Ben, now don’t. I’m afeard—”\r\n\r\n“I’ll give you _all_ of it!”\r\n\r\nTom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his\r\nheart. And while the late steamer Big Missouri worked and sweated in the\r\nsun, the retired artist sat on a barrel in the shade close by,\r\ndangled his legs, munched his apple, and planned the slaughter of more\r\ninnocents. There was no lack of material; boys happened along every\r\nlittle while; they came to jeer, but remained to whitewash. By the time\r\nBen was fagged out, Tom had traded the next chance to Billy Fisher for\r\na kite, in good repair; and when he played out, Johnny Miller bought in\r\nfor a dead rat and a string to swing it with—and so on, and so on, hour\r\nafter hour. And when the middle of the afternoon came, from being a\r\npoor poverty-stricken boy in the morning, Tom was literally rolling in\r\nwealth. He had besides the things before mentioned, twelve marbles, part\r\nof a jews-harp, a piece of blue bottle-glass to look through, a spool\r\ncannon, a key that wouldn’t unlock anything, a fragment of chalk, a\r\nglass stopper of a decanter, a tin soldier, a couple of tadpoles,\r\nsix fire-crackers, a kitten with only one eye, a brass door-knob, a\r\ndog-collar—but no dog—the handle of a knife, four pieces of orange-peel,\r\nand a dilapidated old window sash.\r\n\r\nHe had had a nice, good, idle time all the while—plenty of company—and\r\nthe fence had three coats of whitewash on it! If he hadn’t run out of\r\nwhitewash he would have bankrupted every boy in the village.\r\n\r\nTom said to himself that it was not such a hollow world, after all. He\r\nhad discovered a great law of human action, without knowing it—namely,\r\nthat in order to make a man or a boy covet a thing, it is only necessary\r\nto make the thing difficult to attain. If he had been a great and\r\nwise philosopher, like the writer of this book, he would now have\r\ncomprehended that Work consists of whatever a body is _obliged_ to do,\r\nand that Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do. And\r\nthis would help him to understand why constructing artificial flowers or\r\nperforming on a tread-mill is work, while rolling ten-pins or climbing\r\nMont Blanc is only amusement. There are wealthy gentlemen in England\r\nwho drive four-horse passenger-coaches twenty or thirty miles on a\r\ndaily line, in the summer, because the privilege costs them considerable\r\nmoney; but if they were offered wages for the service, that would turn\r\nit into work and then they would resign.\r\n\r\nThe boy mused awhile over the substantial change which had taken place\r\nin his worldly circumstances, and then wended toward headquarters to\r\nreport.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 3"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG176GFZRW7TBXN3SERNA0V3","peer_label":"CHAPTER II","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":"01KG177EQR4E6TMWRN9608GC7T","peer_label":"Chunk 2","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-28T02:34:25.100Z","ts":"2026-01-28T02:34:25.836Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}