the
main character in the
novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, written in 1876 by
American author,
Mark Twain (1835-1910). The
novel tells of Tom's
life with his Aunt Polly, and of the great mischief he gets into. In one episode, for
example, Tom is being forced to take medicine by his Aunt Polly and instead of taking it, he secretly feeds it to his Aunt's
cat. The
cat reacts crazily to the medicine,
jumping and zooming around the room creating
chaos, which is witnessed by Aunt Polly. Tom tries to explain how he does not know what is
wrong with the
cat, but is soon found out. The book also relates the adventures Tom has with his runaway friend, Huckleberry (Huck) Finn, such as finding a
ghost in a haunted
house (the
ghost turning out to be two criminals hiding treasure), witnessing a
murder and attending their own funerals when the people of the town think them
dead. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer is the first in a
series of four books
telling of the two
boys' adventures.