Tom plays hooky to go swimming with Huck, and nearly gets away with it too until Sid interferes. To get back at him, Tom rashly boasts that he'll get a prize bible before Sid does.

"The Engagement" .In a vain effort to miss school, Tom loses a loose tooth to Aunt Polly's drastic measures. He stops to chat with Huck and is late. His punishment is to sit with the girls, his contrivance to get next to Becky. He professes his love and arranges to meet her in the woods. They become "engaged", but it turns out to be short-lived and Tom is desolate.

Tom and Huck visit the graveyard at midnight, intending to use a dead cat to cure warts. But instead of the devils they expect, three grave robbers arrive and the boys witness the murder of the doctor.

Tom and Joe are both miserable so, together with Huck, they decide the only thing for them to do is to run away and become pirates. When their boat springs a leak, they set up camp on Jackson Island.

Aunt Polly and Mrs Harper discover that their boys are missing, and realize that Tom, Joe and Huck ran away. They start to fear the worst when the leaky boat the boys stole washes ashore.