Tom admires the uniforms of the Cadets of Temperance and joins them so that he can strut at the funeral of Judge Frazer, who is dying. When the Judge has a turn for the better, Tom resigns from the Cadets of Temperance, but then the Judge has a relapse and dies. The funeral is a fine thing, but Tom is free from it. He attempts a diary, but nothing comes of it. He attends a minstrel show, and he and Joe play minstrel for two days. A senator comes, but he is not impressive. A circus comes and leaves the next day, so the boys play circus for a while and then abandon it. A phrenologist and a mesmerizer come, and still the boys are bored and dreary.
Then Tom has the measles for two weeks. He is better for a short time and then has a relapse that lasts three weeks. Between the two bouts with measles, all his friends get religion—even “Huck quoted some scripture!”—but by the end of the second bout, all is normal again.
