Quote 1
"Say, Becky, was you ever engaged?"
"What's that?"
"Why, engaged to be married."
"No."
"Would you like to?"
"I reckon so. I don't know. What is it like?"
"Like? Why it ain't like anything. You only just tell a boy you won't ever have anybody but him, ever ever ever, and then you kiss and that's all. Anybody can do it." (7.32-8)
Though Tom is evidently more knowledgeable than Becky when it comes to terminology, he's still too young to really understand the way love and marriage work.
Quote 2
"Boys, I know who's drownded -- it's us!"
They felt like heroes in an instant. Here was a gorgeous triumph; they were missed; they were mourned; hearts were breaking on their account; tears were being shed; accusing memories of unkindness to these poor lost lads were rising up, and unavailing regrets and remorse were being indulged; and best of all, the departed were the talk of the whole town, and the envy of all the boys, as far as this dazzling notoriety was concerned. (14.25-6)
Children, and only children, could exalt in such a situation – in being thought dead by friends and loved ones – without being touched by the stranger, eerier implications of it.
Quote 3
"The eats by a bell, she goes to bed by a bell; she gits up by a bell—everything's so awful reglar a body can't stand it.
"Well, everybody does it that way, Huck." (35.7-8)
Tom seems to be coming to terms with the adult way of life. He certainly hasn't become one, yet, but he might just be starting to see the light at the end of childhood's long tunnel.