You’re listening to the words of Mark Twain, performed by William Sterling Battis. This excerpt, from the second chapter of Tom Sawyer, shows Tom at his cunning, conniving best.

This recording was one of many Battis made between 1916 and ’17. Listen to more right here, courtesy of your tax dollars! (Library of Congress)

Photo: Martin Kenny, used with permission under Creative Commons license (Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic)