Rather, the lyrics were inspired by a poem called "Louis the Lawyer" penned by Pye Dubois. So, in fact, the title of this tune relates to its subject's resemblance to Tom Sawyer in that both are supposedly free-spirited and adventurous. However, there is more to Louis than just a resemblance to Tom Sawyer. He is also based on an actual person who lived around the time the poem was written. This man was named Louis Duperon and he was a lawyer from Picardy who had many talents including being a good musician and poet. Tom Sawyer is one of the characters in Mark Twain's novel The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Louis Duperon is mentioned several times in poems by Dubois so it is likely that he was used as a model for some of the characters in the poems. For example, one of his songs is called "The Little Mermaid". Twain published The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in 1876 and it is possible that Dubois' poems were already popular at the time so it is likely that he made use of existing material. Indeed, some scholars believe that Dubois' work was the inspiration for some songs that appear in Twain's book such as "Old Man River" and "Maple Sugar." Furthermore, it is known that Louis Duperon met Twain when the former came to London to give concerts with his violin sonata.