What does Tom Sawyer teach us about labour refusal?

Tom got his buddies to paint the fence in his place. Does all labour refusal mean someone else has to do the work?

Reading Tom Sawyer as a kid, it never occurred to me to feel sorry for Tom’s guardian, Aunt Polly, not least, I think, because the illustrations showed her as the very picture of repressive, severe, excessively-moral women. I recall pictures in the book I read of a thin woman with a severe bun.

Image: By True Williams - Library of Congress Prints and Ph…