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going to shake hands with him-he is shaking hands with him! By jings, don’t
you wish you was Jeff?” Mr. Walters fell to “showing off”, with all sorts of
official bustlings and activities, giving orders, delivering judgments, discharging
directions here, there, everywhere that he could find a target. The librarian
“showed off”- running hither and thither with his arms full of books and
making a deal of the splutter and fuss that insect authority delights in.

The young lady teachers “showed off”- bending sweetly over pupils that were
lately being boxed, lifting pretty warning fingers at bad little boys and patting
good ones lovingly. The young gentlemen teachers “showed off” with small
scoldings and other little displays of authority and fine attention to discipline-
and most of the teachers, of both sexes, found business up at the library, by the
pulpit; and it was business that frequently had to be done over again two or
three times, (with much seeming vexation.) The little girls “showed off” in
various ways, and the little boys “showed off” with such diligence that the air
was thick with paper wads and the murmur of scufflings. And above it all the
great man sat and beamed a majestic judicial smile upon all the house, and
warmed himself in the sun of his own grandeur-for he was “showing off,” too.
There was only one thing wanting, to make Mr. Walters’ ecstasy complete, and
that was, a chance to deliver a Bible-prize and exhibit a prodigy. Several pupils
had a few yellow tickets, but none had enough-he had been around among the
star pupils inquiring. He would have given worlds, now, to have that German
lad back again with a sound mind.

And now at this moment, when hope was dead, Tom Sawyer came forward with
nine yellow tickets, nine red tickets, and ten blue ones, and demanded a Bible.
This was a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. Walters was not expecting an
application from this source for the next ten years. But there was no getting
around ithere were the certified checks, and they were good for their face. Tom
was therefore elevated to a place with the judge and the other elect, and the
great news was announced from head-quarters. It was the most stunning
surprise of the decade; and so profound was the sensation that it lifted the new
hero up to the judicial one’s altitude, and the school had two marvels to gaze
upon in place of one. The boys were all eaten up with envy-but those that
suffered the bitterest pangs were those who perceived too late that they
themselves had contributed to this hated splendor by trading tickets to Tom for
the wealth he had amassed in selling whitewashing privileges. These despised
themselves, as being the dupes of a wily fraud, a guileful snake in the grass.

The prize was delivered to Tom with as much effusion as the Superintendent
could pump up under the circumstances; but it lacked somewhat of the true
gush, for the poor fellow’s instinct taught him that there was a mystery here that
could not well bear the light, perhaps; it was simply preposterous that this boy
had warehoused two thousand sheaves of Scriptural wisdom on his premises-a
dozen would strain his capacity, without a doubt.

Amy Lawrence was proud and glad, and she tried to make Tom see it in her
face-but he wouldn’t look. She wondered; then she was just a grain troubled;