Important Quotations Explained
1. I
ain't doing my duty by that boy, and that's the Lord's truth, goodness
knows. Spare the rod and spile the child, as the Good Book says.
I'm a-laying up sin and suffering for us both, I know. He's full
of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me! he's my own dead sister's boy,
poor thing, and I ain't got the heart to lash him, somehow. Every
time I let him off, my conscience does hurt me so, and every time
I hit him my old heart most breaks.
2. “Oh
come, now, you don't mean to let on that 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?”
That put the
thing in a new light. Ben stopped nibbling his apple. Tom swept
his brush daintily back and forth—stepped back to note the effect—added
a touch here and there—criticized the effect again—Ben watching
every move and getting more and more interested, more and more absorbed.
Presently he said:
“Say, Tom, let me whitewash
a little.”
3. Mr.
Walters fell to “showing off,” with all sorts of official bustlings
and activities. . . . The librarian “showed off”—running hither
and thither with his arms full of books. . . . The young lady teachers
“showed off”. . . . The young gentlemen teachers “showed off”. .
. . The little girls “showed off” in various ways, and the little
boys “showed off” with such diligence that the air was thick with
paper wads and the murmur of scufflings. And above it all the great
man sat and beamed a majestic judicial smile upon all the house,
and warmed himself in the sun of his own grandeur—for he was “showing
off,” too.
4. Tom
was a glittering hero once more—the pet of the old, the envy of
the young. His name even went into immortal print, for the village
paper magnified him. There were some that believed he would be President,
yet, if he escaped hanging.
5. Huck
Finn's wealth and the fact that he was now under the Widow Douglas's
protection introduced him into society—no, dragged him into it,
hurled him into it—and his sufferings were almost more than he could
bear. The widow's servants kept him clean and neat, combed and brushedâ.
He had to eat with knife and fork; he had to use napkin, cup, and
plate; he had to learn his book, he had to go to church; he had
to talk so properly that speech was become insipid in his mouth;
whithersoever he turned, the bars and shackles of civilization shut
him in and bound him hand and foot.
