Приключения Тома Сойера / The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

Sid said:

�Tom! Say, Tom!’ [No response.] �Here, Tom! TOM! What is the matter, Tom?’ And he shook him and looked in his face anxiously.

Tom moaned out:

�Oh, don’t, Sid. Don’t joggle me.’

�Why, what’s the matter, Tom? I must call auntie.’

�No – never mind. It’ll be over by and by, maybe. Don’t call anybody.’

�But I must! DON’T groan so, Tom, it’s awful. How long you been this way?’

�Hours. Ouch! Oh, don’t stir so, Sid, you’ll kill me.’

�Tom, why didn’t you wake me sooner? Oh, Tom, DON’T! It makes my flesh crawl to hear you.

Tom, what is the matter?’

�I forgive you everything, Sid. [Groan.] Everything you’ve ever done to me. When I’m gone – ’

�Oh, Tom, you ain’t dying, are you? Don’t, Tom – oh, don’t. Maybe – ’

�I forgive everybody, Sid. [Groan.] Tell ’em so, Sid. And Sid, you give my window-sash and my cat with one eye to that new girl that’s come to town, and tell her – ’

But Sid had snatched his clothes and gone.

Tom was suffering in reality, now, so handsomely was his imagination working, and so his groans had gathered quite a genuine tone.

Sid flew down-stairs and said:

�Oh, Aunt Polly, come! Tom’s dying!’

�Dying!’

�Yes’m. Don’t wait – come quick!’

�Rubbage! I don’t believe it!’

But she fled up-stairs, nevertheless, with Sid and Mary at her heels. And her face grew white, too, and her lip trembled. When she reached the bedside she gasped out:

�You, Tom! Tom, what’s the matter with you?’

�Oh, auntie, I’m – ’

�What’s the matter with you – what is the matter with you, child?’

�Oh, auntie, my sore toe’s mortified!’

The old lady sank down into a chair and laughed a little, then cried a little, then did both together.

This restored her and she said:

�Tom, what a turn you did give me. Now you shut up that nonsense and climb out of this.’

The groans ceased and the pain vanished from the toe.

The boy felt a little foolish, and he said:

�Aunt Polly, it SEEMED mortified, and it hurt so I never minded my tooth at all.’

�Your tooth, indeed! What’s the matter with your tooth?’

�One of them’s loose, and it aches perfectly awful.’

�There, there, now, don’t begin that groaning again. Open your mouth. Well – your tooth IS loose, but you’re not going to die about that.