CHAPTER IX. TOM PRACTISES SYCOPHANCY
Why is it that we rejoice at a birth and grieve at a funeral? It is because we are not the person involved. —Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar.
It is easy to find fault, if one has that disposition. There was once a man who, not being able to find any other fault with his coal, complained that there were too many prehistoric toads in it. —Pudd’nhead Wilson’s Calendar.
Tom flung himself on the sofa, and put his throbbing head in his hands, and rested his elbows on his knees. He rocked himself back and forth and moaned.
“ I’ve knelt to a n****r wench!” he muttered. “I thought I had struck the deepest depths of degradation before, but oh, dear, it was nothing to this.… Well, there is one consolation, such as it is—I’ve struck bottom this time; t
