Because if he'd had one she'd a burnt him out herself! She'd a roasted his bowels out of him 'thout any more feeling than if he was a human!" Aunt Polly felt a sudden pang of remorse.

This was putting the thing in a new light; what was cruelty to a cat MIGHT be cruelty to a boy, too.

She began to soften; she felt sorry.

Her eyes watered a little, and she put her hand on Tom's head and said gently: "I was meaning for the best, Tom.

And, Tom, it DID do you good." Tom looked up in her face with just a perceptible twinkle peeping through his gravity.
"I know you was meaning for the best, aunty, and so was I with Peter.
It done HIM good, too.