| Summary: |
Tom Sawyer has a falling-out with Becky Thatcher, his sweetheart, and seeks comfort in the forbidden company of Huck Finn, the town ragamuffin. Huck tells him of a mysterious cure for warts that requires them to visit the town graveyard at midnight. There they see Injun Joe, a treacherous half-breed, murder one of his companions. Muff Potter, also there, but in a drunken state, is made to believe he committed the crime. Tom and Huck swear a blood oath that they will not divulge what they have seen. Wrongfully rebuked by his Aunt Polly, Tom runs away from home, joining Huck and Joe Harper on an expedition to an island on the Mississippi, where they live for three days in carefree abandon. Getting homesick, Tom returns to find he is thought drowned, and the boys attend their own obsequies at the church. Tom confesses the truth about the murder at Muff Potter's trial, but Injun Joe eludes a posse. At the school picnic near a cavern, Tom and Becky get lost in the cave and stumble on Injun Joe unearthing a chest of gold; he pursues them, but falls into a crevasse to his death. Huck finds Tom and Becky and leads them to safety, retrieving the chest of gold.
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