their pockets in exchange for this privilege. And never did a fence
receive such a whitewashing! There wasn't fence enough and, therefore,
the process must needs be repeated again and again. The best part of the
entire episode was that everybody was happy, Tom included. Tom was happy
in seeing his plan work, and the other boys were happy because they were
doing work that Tom had caused them to become eager to do.

=Work as a privilege.=--To make work seem a privilege is a worthy task
for the school to set before itself, and if it but achieves this it will
prove itself worth all it costs. At first thought, it seems a stupendous
task, and so it is. But Tom Sawyer accomplished it in an easy, natural
way, with no parade or bombast. He had habit and tradition to contend
against, just as the school has, but he overbore these obstacles and won
the contest. Some of those boys, before that morning, may have thought
it ignoble to perform menial tasks; but Tom soon overcame that feeling
and led them to feel that only an artist can whitewash a fence properly.
Some of them may have been interpreting life as having a good time, but,
under the tutorage of Tom, they soon came to feel that having a good
time means whitewashing a fence.

=The persistency of habit.=--In striving to exalt and ennoble work, the
school runs counter to habits of thought that have been formed in the
home, and these habits prove stubborn. The home has so long imposed work
as a task that the school finds it difficult to make it seem a
privilege. The father and mother have so often complained of their work,
in the presence of their children, that all work comes to assume the
aspect of a hardship, if not a penalty. It often happens, too, that the
parents encourage their children to think that education affords
immunity from work, and the children attend school with that notion
firmly implanted in their minds. They seem to think that when they have