The Adventures of Tom Sawyer 

Table of Contents
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CHAPTER 5: Tom and His Guilty Conscience

After the boys said good-bye, Tom returned to his house and crept silently in his bedroom window. He undressed with great care and fell asleep congratulating himself that no one knew of his adventure. He was not aware that the gently snoring Sid was awake and had been so for almost an hour.

When Tom awoke the next morning, Sid was dressed and gone. Something was wrong. No one had bothered to wake him. Within five minutes he was dressed and downstairs, feeling sore and drowsy.

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After breakfast, Aunt Polly took Tom aside and wept. He had broken her old heart.

“Go on and ruin yourself,” she cried. “It’s no use for me to try and raise you like a good boy. I know you sneaked out last night.”

Tom pleaded for forgiveness and promised to reform. He was so miserable he didn’t even think of ways of getting even with Sid for telling on him. He moped to school, feeling sad and gloomy.

With hardly a sound, he slipped into his seat. His elbow pressed against something hard and cold. He held it up and unwrapped it. A long lingering sigh followed and his heart broke. It was his brass doorknob. Becky had returned it!

Tom hardly had time to wallow in his sorrow. By noontime, the whole village was alive with news of Dr. Robinson’s murder. Everyone in town was drifting towards the graveyard. Tom’s heartbreak over Becky flew away, and he joined

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Tom’s Gift Is Returned.

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the procession. As soon as he reached the scene of the bloody crime, he felt a slight pinch on his arm. It was Huckleberry Finn. They looked into each other’s faces and felt tense and uncomfortable because of the secret they shared.

Within a few minutes, Injun Joe and Muff Potter appeared. Without a moment’s hesitation, Injun Joe told the sheriff a grisly tale, calmly explaining that Muff Potter had stabbed the doctor during a drunken rage.

Huck and Tom stood frozen in their tracks as the stony-hearted liar reeled off his story. The boys were astonished. An innocent man was going to hang, and only they could save him.

Tom’s fearful secret and gnawing conscience disturbed his sleep that night and every night that followed. After several nights of Tom’s moaning and tossing, Sid complained to Aunt Polly. She questioned Tom, but all he said was, “It’s nothing, nothing at all.”

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A Stony-Hearted Liar!

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But Sid, who seemed just a bit too concerned, had to say, “But you talk so much, Tom. Last night in your sleep, you kept screaming something about blood and telling somebody something.”

This made Aunt Polly think that Tom was only having nightmares about the murder, just like other people in the town were. Although Tom nodded his head in agreement, Sid suspected that something much more dramatic was bothering Tom.

Every day or two during this time, Tom went to the little jail window and smuggled small gifts to Muff Potter. Cigars and bits of fruit and food were silently passed to the prisoner. Muff thanked Tom and figured it was the boy’s way of thanking him for the few times they had gone fishing together. But to Tom, these offerings were the only way he had of easing his guilty conscience.

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Tom Eases His Guilty Conscience.

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Tom Watches Becky’s Window.