In Chapter 2, Aunt Polly orders Tom to whitewash a fence, and Tom tries to convince Jim to whitewash the fence so he could go to the well to interact with the boys and girls there instead of working. Then all of a sudden Ben Rodgers comes by, and Ben tries to make Tom envious by telling he’s going swimming. Rather than Tom having a dispute with Ben he lures and convinces Ben to do his work for him.

, I’d like to, honest injun; but Aunt Polly—well, Jim wanted to do it, but she wouldn’t let him; Sid wanted to do it, and she wouldn’t let Sid. Now don’t you see how I’m fixed? If you was to tackle this fence and anything was to happen to it—

Oh, shucks, I’ll be just as careful. Now lemme try. Say—I’ll give you the core of my apple.

Well, here—No, Ben, now don’t. I’m afeard—

I’ll give you all of it!

Tom gave up the brush with reluctance in his face, but alacrity in his heart.”

[The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Chapter II]

Tom cleverly lures Ben into taking interest in whitewash, and he does because he’d rather do whatever a twelve year old would want to do back in the 1840s. Tom does this by selling the act of whitewashing seem much more fun than a chore, and then when Tom says that Aunt Polly only Tom to do the work he only lures Ben even more into it. At this point Tom has already sold Ben on whitewashing, but he wants a little more out of the deal. Tom convinces Ben to give his apple to Tom in exchange to whitewash for a little bit. Up to where we’ve read, Tom has continued to use his scheming intelligence and trickery to get out of work and poor situations. For Tom his trickery has led him to a betterment of his somewhat dull and boring life.