In Chapter 12 Tom is said to be sick, his aunt tries a long series of medicines and remedies, but none seem to work. Well, maybe Tom isn’t sick at all. None of her remedies work because its love sickness and only the person you love could do something about it. He is sick in a romantic way because he misses Becky and maybe he loves Becky a lot that he feels alone and need someone to be with him. I think Tom isn’t pretending or acting anything because he changes a lot in two ways: he reached school ahead of time and he no longer took an interest in war, nor even in piracy.