Chapter 4 Across the River

Tom, Joe, and Huck went to the river. There was a small boat there. The boys went across the river in the small boat. They said, “This is a good place because we can play all day. There's no school here.”

They played and then went to sleep.

In the morning, the boys were happy again. They said, “Let's stay here for a long time.”

In the afternoon, they played near the river again. Suddenly, there was a noise from a big boat on the river. The boys stopped playing and watched the boat.

“Listen,” Tom said. “The men on the boat are talking about us.”

The boys listened quietly. A man said, “The boys are in the river. They're dead.”

Tom said, “Those men are looking for us in the river. We're here, but they don't know that.”

That night, the boys were sad. Huck and Joe went to sleep, but Tom didn't sleep. He went home in the small boat. He quietly went in his bedroom window. Then he went under his bed and stayed there.

Aunt Polly and her friends came into his room. Aunt Polly said to her friends, “Tom was a good boy, and I loved him. Now he's dead, and I'm very sad.”

Tom wanted to say, “I'm not dead.” But he stayed quiet.

Aunt Polly went to sleep. Tom went out of the window very quietly and went back across the river.

In the morning, Joe and Huck said, “We're not happy here now. We want to go home.”

Tom said, “Let's go home on Sunday. We can go to church.People are going to be very surprised!”

Sunday morning, many children were at church. They talked about the three boys. They were sad because their friends were dead. Becky was sad, too.

Suddenly, the three boys walked into the church. People were very surprised, but they were very happy, too.