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“ No , Ben , I don’t think I can . Aunt Polly is very careful about this fence . It’s right here on the street , you see . I don’t think there’s one boy in a thousand who can do it properly . ” “ Oh , come on . Let me just try . Only a little . Look , I’ll give you the core of my apple . ” “ Well , here … No , Ben , I’m afraid … ” “ I’ll give you all of it ! ” Tom gave him the brush with a sad face but a happy heart . And while the steamboat worked in the hot sun , the artist sat on a barrel in the shade . He swung his legs , ate the apple and planned how to catch more fools . There were plenty of them . Boys came along every few minutes . They came to laugh , but they stayed to paint . When Ben was tired , Tom sold the next turn to Billy Fisher for a kite . When Billy was tired , Johnny Miller paid with a dead rat and a string to swing it with . And so it went on , hour after hour . By the middle of the afternoon , Tom was a rich boy . He had twelve marbles , a key that could not open anything , a tin soldier , two tadpoles , a kitten with only one eye and a brass doorknob . He had a nice , lazy time with plenty of company . And the fence had three coats of whitewash on it ! In the end he ran out of whitewash , or every boy in the village would have paid him . Tom learnt a great law of human life that day , although he did not know it . If you want people to want something , you only have to make it difficult to get . Work is what you have to do . Play is what you don’t have to do . He went in to Aunt Polly . “ May I go and play now , aunt ? It’s all done . ” “ Tom , don’t lie to me . I can’t stand it . ” “ I’m not lying , aunt . It really is all done . ” Aunt Polly went out to see for herself . The whole fence was white , and she could hardly speak . “ Well , I never ! You can work when you want to , Tom . ” Then she added quickly , “ But you don’t often want to , I must say . Well , go and play . ” She was so pleased that she gave him the best apple she had . Tom took the apple , and on his way out he took a doughnut too . Then he saw Sid in the garden . Soon the air was full of little balls of earth , and they were all flying at Sid . Before Aunt Polly could come out and save him , Tom was over the fence and gone . III . The Girl in the Garden Later that day , as Tom passed Jeff Thatcher’s house , he saw a new girl in the garden . She was a lovely little thing with blue eyes and yellow hair in two long plaits , and she wore a white summer dress . At that moment Tom forgot all about Amy Lawrence . Only a week before , he had been sure that he loved Amy more than anything in the world .
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