The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain.

Look, you must already know that this book is brilliant, witty, human and humane.

If you haven't read it (and I understand there are such people) then here's a taster to show you what you've missed.

It's a beautiful day, but Tom Sawyer has been forced to stay at home and whitewash a fence. Tom's sorrows are many, for not only is he missing a day's freedom, but his friends will be certain to make fun of him. But then, being the irrepressible Tom, he has an idea, an inspiration, a stroke of supreme genius.

'Say - I'm going a-swimming, I am. Don't you wish you could? But of course you'd druther work - wouldn't you? Course you would!'
Tom contemplated the boy a bit, and said:
'What do you call work?'
'Why, ain't that work?'
Tom resumed the white washing, and answered carelessly:
'Well maybe it is, and maybe it ain't. All I know is, it suits Tom Sawyer.'
'Oh, come, now, you don't mean to let on you like it?'
The brush continued to move.
Like it? Well, I don't see why I oughtn't to like it. Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?'
This put the thing in a new light.

                ******************************



Of course it does. And Tom ends up in profit to the tune of, amongst other things, two tadpoles, a small piece of chalk and a bit of a window sash.

Now that's what I call a real hero.


Word To Use Today: sawyer. A sawyer is someone who saws timber for a living. It comes from the word saw, of course, which in turn comes from the Old English sagu and is related to the lovely Old Norse word sog. Before that the Latin word secāre, which means to cut, probably has something to do with it.