Excerpt from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Chapter 1)
Mark Twain
The old lady whirled round, and snatched her skirts out of danger. The lad fled on the instant, scrambled up the high board-
fence, and disappeared over it. His Aunt Polly stood surprised a moment, and then broke into a gentle laugh.
(8) "Hang the boy, can't I never learn anything? Ain't he played me tricks enough like that for me to be looking out for him by this
time? But old fools is the biggest fools there is. Can't learn an old dog new tricks, as the saying is. (9)But my goodness, he never
plays them alike, two days, and how is a body to know what's coming? He 'pears to know just how long he can torment me
before I get my dander up, and he knows if he can make out to put me off for a minute or make me laugh, it's all dowagain and I
can't hit him a lick. I ain't doing my duty by that boy, and that's the Lord's truth, goodness knows. (10) Spare the rod and spile the
child, as the Good Book says. I'm a laying up sin and suffering for us both, I know. He's full of the Old Scratch, but laws-a-me!
he's my own dead sister's boy, poor thing, and I ain't got the heart to lash him, somehow. Every time I let him off, my conscience
does hurt me so, and every time I hit him my old heart most breaks. Well-a-well, man that is born of woman is of few days and
full of trouble, as the Scripture says, and I reckon it's so. He'll play hookey this evening, and I'll just be obleeged to make him
work, tomorrow, to punish him. It's mighty hard to make him work Saturdays, when all the boys is having holiday, but he hates
work more than he hates anything else, and I've GOT to do some of my duty by him, or I'll be the ruination of the child."
What is Aunt Polly's conflict in the last section (after Tom scrambled up the high board-fence, and disappeared over it.)?