Pitched Unfairly

The Fence by Tom Sawyer of St. Petersburg

A fence like this doesn’t come along every day.

Fig. 1. Progress to dateDiscovery call · Ben Rogers · Saturday

The big shift

Work is what you must do. Play is everything else.

Work Obliged

  • Constructing artificial flowers
  • Performing on a tread-mill

Play Not obliged

  • Rolling ten-pins
  • Climbing Mont Blanc

Whitewashing a fence

After Twain, chapter 2

The stakes

Not one boy in a thousand, maybe two thousand, can do it right.

Ben Rogers

The swimming hole will still be there next Saturday.

Discovery

Ask first: what do you call work?

Questions Tom asked
2
Times Ben asked for a turn
3
Times Tom asked for help
0
  1. Ben You’re up a stump, ain’t you!
  2. No answer. Tom keeps whitewashing.
  3. Ben You got to work, hey?
  4. Tom What do you call work?
  5. Ben Why, ain’t that work?
  6. Tom Does a boy get a chance to whitewash a fence every day?
  7. Ben stops nibbling his apple.
  8. Ben Say, Tom, let me whitewash a little.

Qualification

Three questions decide who gets a turn.

  1. Need

    What brings you down the street?

    Going in a-swimming

  2. Authority

    Has Aunt Polly turned you down?

    Never asked her

  3. Budget

    What have you got to trade?

    An apple, all of it

  4. Turn one

Customers like you

Gentlemen in England pay to drive the coach. Pay them wages and they quit.

Matched on Runs a passenger line for fun. You run the Big Missouri.

Case studyTransport, England

Account
Wealthy gentlemen, England
Drives
Four-horse passenger coaches
Route
Twenty or thirty miles, on a daily line
Season
Summer
Who pays?

The privilege costs them considerable money

PlayRenewing daily

The promised land

Thirty yards, nine feet high, right here on the street.

Turn oneBen Rogers

Turns two onwardBy arrangement

Aunt Polly is awful particular about this one.

Deal desk

Not the core. All of it.

Discount given: none. Price named by: Ben.

  1. 01

    Let me whitewash a little.

    No, no, I reckon it wouldn’t hardly do, Ben.

    Declined
  2. 02

    Lemme just try. I’d let you, if you was me.

    Ben, I’d like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly...

    Declined
  3. 03

    I’ll give you the core of my apple.

    No, Ben, now don’t. I’m afeard.

    Declined
  4. 04

    I’ll give you all of it!

    Hands over the brush, with reluctance in his face.

    Accepted

Rate card

We accept most forms of payment. Dog not required.

Lines received

19

Whitewash left

Out of whitewash

Received, SaturdayFrom

  1. An apple, all of it Ben Rogers
  2. A kite, in good repair Billy Fisher
  3. A dead rat, and a string to swing it with Johnny Miller
  4. Twelve marbles Sundry
  5. Part of a jews-harp Sundry
  6. A piece of blue bottle-glass to look through Sundry
  7. A spool cannon Sundry
  8. A key that wouldn’t unlock anything Sundry
  9. A fragment of chalk Sundry
  10. A glass stopper of a decanter Sundry
  11. A tin soldier Sundry
  12. A couple of tadpoles Sundry
  13. Six fire-crackers Sundry
  14. A kitten with only one eye Sundry
  15. A brass door-knob Sundry
  16. A dog-collar, but no dog Sundry
  17. The handle of a knife Sundry
  18. Four pieces of orange-peel Sundry
  19. A dilapidated old window sash Sundry

Mutual action plan

Your turn starts now. Bring the apple.

  1. Now Ben + Tom Ben hands over the apple. Tom hands over the brush.
  2. Until fagged out Ben Whitewashes in the sun, steamboat and all.
  3. Hour after hour Tom Sells the next turn to every boy who comes to jeer.
  4. Mid-afternoon Aunt Polly Inspects. Expects twenty per cent of it to be true.
Three coats