The Only Use of
purloin
in
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer
- They tried to argue it away by reminding conscience that they had purloined sweetmeats and apples scores of times; but conscience was not to be appeased by such thin plausibilities; it seemed to them, in the end, that there was no getting around the stubborn fact that taking sweetmeats was only "hooking," while taking bacon and hams and such valuables was plain simple stealing—and there was a command against that in the Bible.†
Chpt 13purloined = stole or stolen
Definition:
to steal -- especially in violation of trust