Quote 10
Now Tom began to scrawl something on the slate, hiding the words from the girl. But she was not backward this time. She begged to see. Tom said:
"Oh, it ain't anything."
"Yes it is."
"No it ain't. You don't want to see." (6.143-6)
Tom's tricks aren't all first-class; sometimes he simply resorts to classic ruses to get what he wants.
Quote 11
"A thought shot like lightning through Tom's brain. He sprang to his feet and shouted –
"I done it!"
The school stared in perplexity at this incredible folly. Tom stood a moment, to gather his dismembered faculties; and when he stepped forward to go to his punishment the surprise, the gratitude, the adoration that shone upon him out of poor Becky's eyes seemed pay enough for a hundred floggings. (30.30-32)
Here, even as Tom sacrifices himself, the manipulative aspect of his actions should be acknowledged. He is putting himself on the line in order to help Becky, yes, but also to win her back.
Quote 12
Tom saw his opportunity—
"Lookyhere, Huck, being rich ain't going to keep me back from turning robber."
"No! Oh, good-licks; are you in real dead-wood earnest, Tom?"
"Just as dead earnest as I'm sitting here. But Huck, we can't let you into the gang if you ain't respectable, you know." (35.12-15)
Tom's nimble imagination – and the fact that most of his schemes have no basis in reality – allows him to coax Huck in to going back to the Widow Douglas.