In Tom Sawyer Abroad, Tom Sawyer and Nat Parsons (who was postmaster of the village) always told about the adventures they had been on. They were always trying to tell the best stories, so that the people of the town would listen and become interested in them. But Nat Parsons went to Washington and when he came back he told about the exciting things that happened. Soon Nat got all the people’s attention, and Tom became jealous and wanted to do more adventurous things than Nat so that he could tell stories about it.Not long after Tom’s longing for adventure, there was talk about a big hot air balloon that was flying across the ocean to Europe. A professor, who made the balloon, was going to ride in it. The balloon was coming to town, and Tom, his friend Huck Finn, and his black friend Jim just had to see it. They went to the edge of town and gazed at it with awe. Other people that had come to view the large balloon were laughing at the professor saying that a balloon could not fly across the ocean. Tom, Jim, and Huck climbed aboard the boat-like structure that was attached to the bottom of the balloon, so that they could take a better look at the flying balloon. Suddenly the balloon took off in the air with them and the professor in it.Tom was very excited about this, and soon the professor taught him how to steer the ship and land it. The professor went crazy due to all the people making fun of him, and one night during a storm, he fell off the ship. So the boys were left with the ship, and luckily the professor had stored plenty of food on board for three or more months. They were going east, but during the storm the ship had wandered off course, so Tom tried to line it back up as much as possible. While they were travelling across the ocean, Tom tried to teach Jim and Huck about time zones and things like that, which he had learned from reading some of the professor’s books. One morning Jim shouted ou...
