Hello everybody and have a lovely day~
I can’t work out these words below:
Tom nervously looked at aunt paulie's face, but it told him nothing. he said “I did want to go swimming but I had to go to school” aunt Polly felt tom's shirt collar. it was dry, and for a minute she just stared at Tom.
(The adventures of Tom Sawyer; Little fox audio book)
My questions are:
#1:
What did author exactly want to say in 'but it told him nothing? Did Tom think there were no problems or have no idea?
#2:
What did ‘just’ in the last sentence exactly mean?
Thank you for your help~

Question

Answer

but it told him nothing = He couldn't get any clues about her emotional state by looking at her face.

she just stared at Tom = All she did was stare. She kept her gaze fixed on him. She didn't speak.

Answer

Hi there!!
1 - It means that her face, her facial expression at the moment didn't give him any information. He couldn't read her expression.
2 - just indicates "only". She didn't do anything else but stare
I hope I have helped you. Let me know if you have any other questions.

Answer

Hello!

1. 'but it told him nothing' means that he could not understand what she was thinking or feeling.

2. 'just' in this case means she only stared at Tom, she didn't speak, didn't move 'just/only' looked at him.