spelling-book. If she had had any lingering notion of exposing Alfred

Temple, Tom's offensive fling had driven it entirely away.

Poor girl, she did not know how fast she was nearing trouble herself.

The master, Mr. Dobbins, had reached middle age with an unsatisfied

ambition. The darling of his desires was, to be a doctor, but poverty

had decreed that he should be nothing higher than a village

schoolmaster. Every day he took a mysterious book out of his desk and

absorbed himself in it at times when no classes were reciting. He kept

that book under lock and key. There was not an urchin in school but was

perishing to have a glimpse of it, but the chance never came. Every boy

and girl had a theory about the nature of that book; but no two

theories were alike, and there was no way of getting at the facts in

the case. Now, as Becky was passing by the desk, which stood near the

door, she noticed that the key was in the lock! It was a precious

moment. She glanced around; found herself alone, and the next instant

she had the book in her hands. The title-page--Professor Somebody's

ANATOMY--carried no information to her mind; so she began to turn the

leaves. She came at once upon a handsomely engraved and colored

frontispiece--a human figure, stark naked. At that moment a shadow fell

on the page and Tom Sawyer stepped in at the door and caught a glimpse

of the picture. Becky snatched at the book to close it, and had the

hard luck to tear the pictured page half down the middle. She thrust

the volume into the desk, turned the key, and burst out crying with

shame and vexation.

198

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer