# Quote — Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

> A brown spotted lady-bug climbed the dizzy height of a grass blade, and Tom bent down close to it and said, “Lady-bug, lady-bug, fly away home, your house is on fire, your children’s alone,” and she took wing and went off to see about it—which did not surprise the boy, for he knew of old that this insect was credulous about conflagrations, and he had practised upon its simplicity more than once.

- Author: [Mark Twain](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain.md)
- Book: [The Adventures of Tom Sawyer](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/The_Adventures_of_Tom_Sawyer#Quotes) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/a-brown-spotted

## More from this book

> Often, the less there is to justify a traditional custom, the harder it is to get rid of it.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/often-the-less.md)

Topics: [change](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/change.md)

> Work consists of whatever a body is OBLIGED to do, and...Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.

p. 32 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/work-consists-of-whatever.md)

Topics: [work](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work.md)

> “What’s your name?”
>
> “Becky Thatcher. What’s yours? Oh, I know. It’s Thomas Sawyer.”
>
> “That’s the name they lick me by. I’m Tom when I’m good.”

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/mark-twain/the-adventures-of-tom-sawyer/whats-your-name.md)