Aunt Polly punishes Tom for skipping school by making him whitewash a fence on Saturday.

Tom tricks neighborhood boys into whitewashing the fence by pretending it is a rare and special privilege.

Tom sees a blond girl named Becky Thatcher in a garden and immediately forgets his former love.

Tom and Huck take a dead cat to a graveyard at night, intending to use it to cure warts.

Tom and Huck watch Injun Joe stab Doctor Robinson to death during a quarrel over payment for grave robbing.

Tom, Joe Harper, and Huck Finn sail on a raft to Jackson's Island to live as pirates.

Tom sneaks back to the mainland at night and hides under Aunt Polly's bed while she grieves his disappearance.

Tom, Huck, and Joe walk into their own funeral service to the astonishment of the entire congregation.

Tom takes the witness stand at Muff Potter's murder trial and names Injun Joe as the real killer.

Tom and Huck spy through floorboards as Injun Joe, in disguise, uncovers a box of gold coins at a haunted house.

Huck overhears Injun Joe's plan to disfigure Widow Douglas and alerts a neighbor to stop the attack.

Tom and Becky wander too deep into McDougal's Cave during a school picnic and become hopelessly lost.

Tom follows a thread of daylight through cave passages and leads Becky to an exit after days underground.

Judge Thatcher tells Tom the cave entrance has been sealed, and Tom realizes Injun Joe is trapped inside.

Tom and Huck return to the cave through Tom's exit and find the gold treasure chest hidden beneath a cross.

Tom Sawyer's story begins as a series of childhood adventures in the small town of St. Petersburg, where he wriggles out of chores and falls for Becky Thatcher. Everything changes when Tom and Huck witness Injun Joe murder Doctor Robinson at the graveyard, setting off a chain of events driven by guilt and danger. Tom escapes to Jackson's Island with his friends, only to return dramatically for their own funeral service. His bravery peaks when he testifies against Injun Joe in open court, placing himself directly in the killer's crosshairs. After Tom and Becky become lost deep in McDougal's Cave, Tom's determination leads them to safety and inadvertently seals Injun Joe's fate. The adventure ends with Tom and Huck discovering a fortune in gold and becoming the wealthiest people in St. Petersburg.

The main story of Tom Sawyer, from fence to fortune.

Sid tells Aunt Polly that Tom's collar is sewn with black thread, exposing Tom's lie about not going swimming.

Tom fights a well-dressed stranger on the street and chases him all the way to his house.

Tom trades away the trinkets he earned from the fence scheme to collect other boys' colored Sunday school tickets.

Tom wins the Bible prize in front of Judge Thatcher but names David and Goliath as Jesus's first disciples.

Tom fakes a sore toe to avoid school, but Aunt Polly simply pulls his loose tooth and sends him anyway.

Tom meets Huckleberry Finn on the way to school and trades his extracted tooth for a tick in a box.

Tom and Huck carve a blood oath on a pine shingle and bury it, swearing never to reveal the murder.

The sheriff arrests Muff Potter after Potter's knife is found beside Doctor Robinson's body at the graveyard.

Tom smuggles tobacco and matches through the jail bars to comfort the imprisoned Muff Potter.

Aunt Polly subjects Tom to the water treatment each morning and then begins dosing him daily with fiery Painkiller.

Tom gives the household cat Peter a spoonful of Painkiller and the cat erupts in chaotic, destructive behavior.

Tom joins the Cadets of Temperance for the uniform but resigns when Judge Frazier recovers, and Frazier dies that same night.

Tom recovers from two bouts of measles only to find the entire town swept up in a religious revival.

Tom enters the Temperance Tavern's mysteriously locked room and finds Injun Joe asleep among empty whisky bottles.

Tom pours more than twelve thousand dollars in gold coins onto the dinner table at Widow Douglas's party.

These events fill in the texture of daily life in St. Petersburg, from Tom's small humiliations at home to his schemes at Sunday school. Huck Finn is introduced as Tom's roguish companion, and the two boys seal their bond with a blood oath after witnessing Robinson's murder. Tom's guilt sends him sneaking gifts to the jailed Muff Potter while he endures Aunt Polly's amateur medical experiments at home. A listless summer brings measles, religious revival, and Tom's brief experiment with temperance, all while Injun Joe's threat lingers unresolved in the background. The trail of the treasure leads Huck to a locked room in the Temperance Tavern, where he confirms Injun Joe's hiding place. The story closes with Tom dramatically revealing the boys' enormous fortune at the widow's celebration party.

The overlooked details and side stories that shape Tom's world.

Tom proposes engagement to Becky Thatcher but accidentally mentions Amy Lawrence, and Becky flees in heartbreak.

Injun Joe convinces the dazed, newly awakened Muff Potter that Potter himself committed the murder of Doctor Robinson.

Aunt Polly weeps over Tom's overnight absence instead of scolding him, and Tom begs her forgiveness.

The boys hear cannon fire over the river and realize the whole town believes they have drowned.

Tom kisses the sleeping Aunt Polly goodbye after watching her grieve, then rows back to the island before dawn.

Tom stops Joe Harper from abandoning the island by revealing his secret plan to attend their own funeral.

Becky watches Alfred Temple pour ink on Tom's spelling book but decides to let Tom face the punishment alone.

Aunt Polly finds a bark shingle in Tom's jacket pocket bearing a message he wrote her and chose not to leave.

Tom steps forward and confesses to tearing Dobbins's anatomy book, taking a whipping that was meant for Becky.

Students lower a cat on a string during examination night and the cat snatches Dobbins's wig from his head.

Huck learns from the Welshman that Injun Joe's men fled the Douglas property without carrying the treasure box.

While exploring a cave passage alone, Tom sees Injun Joe's hand holding a candle and silently retreats without telling Becky.

When the sealed cave door is opened, Injun Joe is found dead just inside, his knife blade broken from digging.

Widow Douglas announces at the party that she intends to educate Huck Finn and give him a permanent home.

Huck runs away from the widow's care but agrees to return after Tom promises him a place in the robber gang.

This pool captures the pivotal moments when characters are forced to make difficult choices or confront hard truths. Tom's early romantic disaster with Becky and his first encounter with genuine moral guilt over Muff Potter's fate push him toward unexpected acts of conscience. Life on Jackson's Island strips away the romance of piracy and forces Tom to reckon with how much his absence hurts the people who love him. Back in St. Petersburg, small acts of loyalty and betrayal between Tom and Becky test their bond before their terrifying ordeal in the cave. Tom's encounter with Injun Joe inside the cave and Huck's relief that the treasure was never moved set the stage for the villain's grim end. The story closes with Huck reluctantly accepting civilization, persuaded only by the promise of belonging to Tom's robber gang.