When Tom first sees Becky in the garden, he begins to "'show off' in all sorts of absurd boyish ways, in order to win her admiration" (Chapter 3). Becky pretends to ignore him, but before she goes inside she tosses a pansy over the fence to encourage his attention.
Soon afterwards, Tom's brother Sid breaks the sugar bowl, and their Aunt Pollly, assuming Tom did it, smacks him. When she realizes Tom didn't do it, she neither apologizes nor reprimands Sid, but tells Tom he probably deserved the blow anyway for something else bad he most likely did when she wasn't looking. Tom knows that "in her heart his aunt was on her knees to him" (Chapter 3), and, to comfort himself, imagines scenes of himself sick on his deathbead or being brought home dead from drowning in the river, with his aunt begging forgiveness.
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