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.
