The morning after the funeral Aunt Polly's kisses stopped.
At breakfast she was angry.
"Tom Sawyer, I cannot believe you were so hard-hearted.
You made me, and everyone else, suffer for almost a week.
You paddled on a log to come to your funeral.
You could have at least come home and let me know that you weren't dead."
Tom looked away.
He knew that his aunt had suffered because of him, and his conscience wouldn't allow him to forget it.
"You should have let me know," continued Aunt Polly.
Tom was sure that his guilty conscience was showing.
"Tell me, Tom, that you would have come if you had thought of it."
"I . . . ah . . . well . . . I don't know," stammered Tom.
"It would have spoiled everything."
"Oh, Tom, you break my heart," said Aunt Polly.
"If you loved me, you would have come home.
But all you care about are your ruined plans."
Tom's conscience was paining him greatly.
"You know, Auntie, I care for you."
"I'd know better if you acted more like it," answered his aunt in a hurt tone.
"I did wrong," confessed Tom.
"I should have thought of you. In any case I did dream of you."
"That isn't much," said Aunt Polly sadly. "But what did you dream about?"
"It was Wednesday night, and I dreamed that you and Joe's mother were sitting here."
"Why, she was here!" exclaimed Aunt Polly. "What else did you dream about?"
"Oh, lots of stuff," said Tom. "But it's all kind of hazy."
"Do try to remember," urged Aunt Polly.
"Well, there was the wind, it blew . . ."
"Yes," said Aunt Polly excitedly.
"The wind did blow something. What did it blow?"
Tom pressed his fingers to his forehead and said, "It blew the candle."
"Mercy!" exclaimed Aunt Polly. "That's right. Go on."
"It's all coming back to me now," cried Tom.
"You said I wasn't bad, and then you started to cry."
"I did," said Aunt Polly.
"Sereny Harper is going to hear about this before I'm an hour older. Go on."
"Then Joe's mother started crying," Tom continued, "and she said Joe wasn't bad either.
She also wished she hadn't punished Joe for taking the cream when she was the one who had thrown it out."
"Tom," cried Aunt Polly, "you were dreaming like a prophet."
Tom told his aunt everything.
He didn't leave out a thing, and Aunt Polly was in awe.
Finally Tom said, "I think you prayed for me. I was sorry.
So I wrote a note saying we weren't dead.
I put it on your table, and then I kissed you."
"I know it's only a dream, but I can forgive you now," said Aunt Polly, hugging Tom.
Sid thought the dream sounded too perfect to be a dream, but he kept his opinion to himself.
When Tom was at school, Aunt Polly went to tell Joe's mother about the dream.
At lunch Tom came home to a very angry aunt.
"I should skin you alive," she said.
"I ran over to Sereny Harper like an old fool.
I told her about your amazing dream.
She told me that Joe had told her you were here that night.
It wasn't a dream at all!"
Tom truly felt sorry for his joke.
It had seemed like a good idea at breakfast, but now it just seemed mean.
"You let me make a fool of myself.
What kind of boy are you?" asked Aunt Polly. Tom hung his head in shame.
"Why did you come over that night?
Did you come to laugh at our troubles?" she demanded.
"No," said Tom. "I came to tell you not to worry.
I even wrote a note on a piece of bark.
When I got the idea about the funeral, I put the note back in my pocket.
But I did kiss you good-night." The hard lines on his aunt's face melted.
The emotion in Tom's voice sounded too real for this to be a lie.
After Tom returned to school, Aunt Polly wanted to see if she could find the piece of bark.
She wondered if Tom really did write a note, or if this was just another one of his stories.
Aunt Polly couldn't decide what to do, so she stood for several minutes, debating with herself.
Curiosity finally got the better of her.
She went into Tom's room and looked around.
Lying on the floor was the piece of bark, and on the back was Tom's note.
As Aunt Polly read it, tears came to her eyes.
"Now I can forgive Tom, even though he has committed a million sins," she murmured.