Chapter 1

You don't know about me, without you have read a book by the name of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, but that ain't no matter. That book wasmade by Mr Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is nothing. I neverseen anybody but lied, one time or another, without it was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly - Tom's Aunt Polly, she is - andMary, and the Widow Douglas, is all told about in that book - which is mostly a true book; with some stretchers, as I said before.

Now the way that the book winds up, is this: Tom and me found the money that the robbers hid in the cave, and it made us rich. We got sixthousand dollars apiece - all gold. It was an awful sight of money when it was piled up. Well, Judge Thatcher, he took it and put it out at interest,and it fetched us a dollar a day a piece, all the year round - more than a body could tell what to do with. The Widow Douglas, she took me for herson, and allowed she would civilise me; but it was rough living in the house all the time, considering how dismal regular and decent the widow wasin all her ways; and so when I couldn't stand it no longer, I lit out. I got into my old rags and my sugar-hogshead again, and was free and satisfied.But Tom Sawyer he hunted me up and said he was going to start a band of robbers, and I might join if I would go back to the widow and berespectable. So I went back.

The widow she cried over me, and called me a poor lost lamb, and she called me a lot of other names, too, but she never meant no harm by it. Sheput me in them new clothes again, and I couldn't do nothing but sweat and sweat, and feel all cramped up. Well, then, the old thing commencedagain. The widow rung a bell for supper, and you had to come to time. When you got to the table you couldn't go right to eating, but you had towait for the widow to tuck down her head and grumble a little over the victuals, though there warn't really anything the matter with them. That is,nothing only everything was cooked by itself. In a barrel of odds and ends it is different; things get mixed up, and the juice kind of swaps around,and the things go better.