Summary—Chapter 18: Tom Reveals His Dream Secret
The morning after Tom returns from the island, Aunt Polly
rebukes him for having made her suffer so much and for not having
given her some hint that he was not actually dead. Tom argues that
doing so would have spoiled the whole adventure, but he admits that
he “dreamed” about everyone back in town. Telling her his dream, Tom
relates everything he saw and overheard when he crossed the river
and sneaked into the house a few nights earlier. Aunt Polly seems
amazed by the power of Tom’s vision and forgives him for not having
visited her. Sid, meanwhile, wonders suspiciously how this dream
could be so precise and detailed.
At school, Tom is declared a hero and basks in the adulation
of his peers. He decides to ignore Becky and instead pays attention
to Amy Lawrence again. When Becky realizes that he is ignoring her, she
gets within earshot and begins issuing invitations to a picnic. Soon
she has asked the whole class to come except Tom and Amy. They go
off together, leaving Becky to stew in jealousy.
At recess, however, Becky manages to turn the tables
by agreeing to look at a picture book with Alfred Temple, the new
boy from the city with whom Tom fights at the beginning of the novel.
Tom grows jealous and becomes bored with Amy. With a great sense
of relief, he heads home alone for lunch. Once Tom is gone, Becky
drops Alfred, who, when he realizes what has transpired, pours ink
on Tom’s spelling book to get him in trouble. Becky sees Alfred
commit the act and considers warning Tom in the hopes of mending
their troubles. But, overcome by Tom’s recent cruelness to her,
she decides instead that Tom deserves a whipping and that she will
hate him forever.
Summary—Chapter 19: The Cruelty of “I Didn’t Think”
Back home, Aunt Polly has learned from Mrs. Harper that
Tom’s dream was a fake and that he came home one night and spied
on them. Aunt Polly scolds him for making her look like a fool in
front of Mrs. Harper and then asks why he came home but still did
nothing to relieve everyone’s sorrow. Tom replies that he was going
to leave a message for her, but he was afraid it would spoil the
surprise, so he left it in his pocket. She sends him back to school
and goes to look in the jacket that he wore to Jackson’s Island,
resolving not to be angry if the message is not there. When she
finds it, she breaks down in tears and says, “I could forgive the
boy, now, if he’d committed a million sins!”
Summary—Chapter 20: Tom Takes Becky’s Punishment
Back at school, Tom attempts a reconciliation with Becky,
but she blows him off and looks forward to seeing him whipped for
the inky spelling book. She proceeds to find a key in the lock of
the teacher’s desk drawer; the drawer contains a book that only
the teacher, Mr. Dobbins, is allowed to read. She opens it and discovers
that it is an anatomy textbook that Mr. Dobbins possesses since
his true ambition is to be a doctor. She opens it to the front page,
which shows a naked figure, and at that moment Tom enters. His entry
startles her so much that she rips the page. She begins to cry,
blames him for making her rip it, and realizes now that she will
be whipped.
The class files in, and Tom stands stoically for his
own whipping, assuming that he must have spilled the ink himself
accidentally. Mr. Dobbins finds the ripped book and begins to grill
each member of the class in turn. When he reaches Becky, she seems
ready to break down, but she is saved when Tom rises and declares,
“I done it!”—thus incurring a second whipping but becoming a hero
again in Becky’s eyes.
