Tom had skipped school and gotten into a fight back then so his aunt punished him by painting the fence
Hi mr.Tom
Hello capable Jim
Various children thought that what he was doing was fun so they gave them diferent things for him to let them paint the fence, while he slaked off and talked with his aunt's slae Jim, who was almost the same age as him
At the end of the day he did what he wanted, got a new colection of lots of weird things and skipped his punishement yet with his aunt ignorant praise for is work
Even though discrimination against black people was a big part of everyones daily lifes Tom and his brother never considered this people less than them and thought they deserved thanks and admiration