A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court

n my fears were not abl

shing dream I've had! I reckon I've waked only just in time to keep from being hanged or drowned or burned or somethin

light flashed in my eyes, and that butterfly, Clarence, stood bef

yet? Go along with the r

ight-hearted way, and fell to

ignedly, "let the dream

e what

rt-a person who never existed; and that I am talking

eam that you're to be burned to

dream; for I knew by past experience of the lifelike intensity of dreams, that to be burned to death, even in a dream, would be ve

you are my friend, aren't you?-don't fail me; help

? Why, man, the corridors are in

But how many, Clarenc

ape." After a pause-hesitatingly: "and

es? What

h, but I daren't,

e matter? Why do you blenc

e is need! I do wan

, be a man-speak out,

ally crept close to me and put his mouth to my ear and told me his fearful news in a whisper, and with all the cowering app

doms that would be desperate enough to essay to cross its lines with you! Now God pity me, I have told

refreshing laugh I had had

ass? Bosh, pure bosh, the silliest bosh in the world! Why, it does seem to me that of all t

before I had half finished, and he was

hese walls may crumble upon us if you say such t

cerely afraid of Merlin's pretended magic as Clarence was, certainly a superior man like me ought to be shrewd enough t

ether; look me in the eye.

lessed Lady's sak

hy I laughed. Because

which he took on was very, very respectful. I took quick note of that; it indicated that a humbug didn't n

in seven hundred

en h

, as a magician; knows some of the old common tricks, but has never got beyond the rudiments, and never will. He is well enough for the provinces-one-night stands and that sort of thing, you know-but dear me, he oughtn't to set up for an expert-anyway not where there's a real artist. Now look here, Clarence, I am going to stand your friend, right along, and in return you must be mine. I want y

zed. But he promised everything; and on my side he made me promise over and over again that I would remain his friend, and never turn ag

he will wonder why a great magician like me should have begged a boy like him to help me

nally it occurred to me all of a sudden that these animals didn't reason; that they never put this and that t

a calamity at my leisure; now the people who are the readiest and eagerest and willingest to swallow miracles are the very ones who are hungriest to see you perform them; suppose I should be called on for a sample? Suppose

If I had only just a moment to think.

ple, played an eclipse as a saving trump once, on some savages, and I saw my chance. I could play it myself, now, a

, subdued, distr

eof you speak; and said your threat is but foolishness and idle vaporing. They disputed long, but in the end, Merlin, scoffing, said, 'Wherefore hath he not named his brave calamity? Verily it is because he cannot.' This thrust did in a most sudden sort close the king's mouth, and he could offer naught to turn the argument; and so, reluctant, and full loth

ate while I got my impressiv

I been shut u

terday was well spent. It

the morning now! And yet it is the very complexion

20th-

ned alive to-morrow

hat h

igh n

stages to my colossal climax, which I delivered in as sublime and noble a way as ever I did such a thing in my life: "Go back and tell the king that at that hour I will smother the whole world in the dead bla

sunk into such a collapse. I handed hi