(Peter Parley's History, which Jim read at school, contained a picture of the naturalist Chatterton thus navigating an alligator, and Jim couldn't see why a tiger should not be handled the same way.

He preferred, however, that some other boy should be the one to make the experiment.) So it was that Tom found himself the hero of the hour.

The boys and all his acquaintances gathered round him, and he had to tell the story over and over, until he became tired.

When Jim Travers was reminded that Tom's modest account did not agree with his flamboyant yarn, he said he feared he had got things a little mixed, but that was the way he or Tom would have conducted the recapture had the chance been given them.
"Are you the young man that caught the runaway tiger ?" asked a pleasant looking gentleman, somewhat loudly dressed, as he laid his hand on the shoulder of Tom Gordon, while he was standing among a group of his friends on the porch of the hotel.
"I didn't exactly capture him," replied the blushing lad; "but I shut the door of the woodhouse, and he stayed there till the owners came and took him away." "It's all the same; you deserve as much credit as if you had brought him here without help.

I believe they promised you a hundred dollars reward, didn't they ?" "Yes, sir; one of the men said if I would call here between six and seven he would give me the money; but I don't see anything of him," added Tom, looking around, in the hope of catching a glimpse of Professor De La Cordova.