On Saturday morning, every boy in town is happy, except Tom Sawyer. He has to paint the fence(篱笆) because he is punished for the mistakes he made yesterday. The fence is at least nine feet high and runs nearly half the block long.
After working for a little period of time, Tom feels bored and wants to have a break. He sits down, beginning to think of all the fun he has planned for the day. He knows that the painting takes up all afternoon. Even worse, other boys will come by soon and see him doing his chores. Just then, Ben Rogers comes along the road with an apple in his hand. Tom has an idea. He picks up his brush and goes back to work.
"Are you working, hey?" says Ben. "Work? What work are you talking about? You must know not every boy can spend a day drawing the whole fence by himself." Answered Tom, then he goes on painting. Ben watches Tom in silence. He becomes more and more interested. After a while, he says, "Say, Tom, Could you share the chance and let me try?"
"No, I'm sorry. Aunt Polly says there isn't one boy in a thousand that's fit to paint the fence. ""Come on, Tom. Let me just try, please...I'll give you my apple!"
Tom considers moment longer. Then very slowly, he hands the brush over to Ben. Sitting under a shady tree, Tom eats the apple and watches Ben paint the fence under the hot sun. He thinks he has discovered something wonderful since then: To make a boy want something, all that you have to do is just making that something hard to get!
