The Boys' Life of Mark Twain

town, but it was not dead. John Clemens believed it a promising place for business, and ope

te town drowsing in the sunshine of a summer morning, . . . the great Mississippi, the magnific

e town was a cave-a wonderful cave, as every reader of Tom Sawyer knows-while out in the river, toward the Illinois shore, was the delec

down, touching to exchange traffic and travelers, a never-ceasing wonder to those simple shut-in dwellers whom the telegraph and railway

the night, fretting with the cold, in some dark corner. Once he heard that a neighbor's children had the measles, and, being very anxious to catch the complaint, slipped over to the house and crept into bed with an infected playmate.

n any child I had," his mother o

afraid I wouldn't

joke, for she had the tenderest of hearts, and, like all mothers, had a weakness for the child that demanded most of her mo

ver seemed so to Little Sam. There was a kind of glory about everything that belonged to Uncle John, and it was not all

ls were served, brought in on huge dishes by the negroes, and left for each one to help himself. Fried chicken, roast pig, turkeys, ducks, geese, venison just killed, squirrels, rabbits, part

was Little Sam's playmate, and a slave girl, Mary, who, being six years older, was supposed to keep them out of mischief. There were swings in the big, shady pasture, where Mary swung her charges and ran under them until their feet touched the branches. All the woods were full of squirrels and birds

ed quite enough when he ate several slices of it. Very soon after he was seized

once during those early years. He was regarded as a curious child. At times dreamy and silent, again wild-headed and noisy, with sudden impulses that sent him capering and swinging his arms int

pon with awe. She was said to be a thousand years old, and to have talked with Moses. She had lost her health in the desert, coming out

ul, who long after, as Nigger Jim in the Tom Sawyer and Huc

the farm during those early years. It would become a beautiful memory. His mother generally kept him there until the

istance, was the mournfulest of all sounds to me and made me homesick and low- spirited and filled my atmosphere with the wandering spirits of the dead; the vast fireplace, piled high with flaming logs from whose ends a sugary sap bubbled out but

s one day going to write of Tom and Huck and the rest learn

n to Hannibal that first summer, she decided that Little Sam was ready

" his mother declared, "and when he's out of it I'm expecti

nd it was at this early age that he was brought home one afternoon in a lim

s mother said: "I guess

be hanged are

ad a heart full of pity, especially for dumb creatures. She refused to kill even flies, and punished the cat for catching mice. She would drown young kitte

on fact. A neighbor once said to her: "You do

I discount him ninety per c

f her hands for a part of each day and try to teach him "ma

vision. Pupils who cared to go beyond those studies went to a Mr. Cross, on the hill, facing what is now the public square. Mrs. Horr received twenty-five cents a week

He experimented during the forenoon, and received a warning. Another experiment would mean correction. He did not expect to b

d when he got outside. He had the forests of Missouri to select from, but choice was not easy. Everything looked too big and competent. Even the smallest switch had a wiry look. Across the way was a cooper's shop. There were shavings outsid

orr's comic side may have prompted forgiv

immy Dunlap brought was of a kind to give Little Sam a permanent distaste for school. He told his mother at noon that he did not care for education; that he did not wish to be a great man; that

early summer came again, when from his desk he could see the sunshine lighting the soft green of Holliday's Hill, with the glint of the river and the purple distance beyond, it seemed to him that to

AMELA

olmates by her amiable deportment and fa

RR, T

that she was a good pupil. If any such reward of merit was ever conferred on Little Sam, it has failed

for he could read, presently, an