Project Gutenberg's The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories, by Mark Twain

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org

Title: The Mysterious Stranger and Other Stories

Author: Mark Twain

Release Date: August 19, 2006
Posting Date: September 5, 2010 [EBook #3186]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER ***

Produced by David Widger, Be Wolf and Donald F. Behan

THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER

by Mark Twain

Note: "The Mysterious Stranger" was written in 1898 and
never finished. The editors of Twain's "Collected Works"
completed the story prior to publication. At what point in
this work Twain left off and where the editor's began
is not made clear in the print copy used as the basis of
this eBook.

Contents:

The Mysterious Stranger
A Fable
Hunting The Deceitful Turkey
The McWilliamses And The Burglar Alarm

THE MYSTERIOUS STRANGER

Chapter 1

It was in 1590--winter. Austria was far away from the world, and asleep;
it was still the Middle Ages in Austria, and promised to remain so
forever. Some even set it away back centuries upon centuries and said
that by the mental and spiritual clock it was still the Age of Belief
in Austria. But they meant it as a compliment, not a slur, and it was so
taken, and we were all proud of it. I remember it well, although I was
only a boy; and I remember, too, the pleasure it gave me.

Yes, Austria was far from the world, and asleep, and our village was in
the middle of that sleep, being in the middle of Austria. It drowsed in
peace in the deep privacy of a hilly and woodsy solitude where news from
the world hardly ever came to disturb its dreams, and was infinitely
content. At its front flowed the tranquil river, its surface painted
with cloud-forms and the reflections of drifting arks and stone-boats;
behind it rose the woody steeps to the base of the lofty precipice;
from the top of the precipice frowned a vast castle, its long stretch of
towers and bastions mailed in vines; beyond the river, a league to the
left, was a tumbled expanse of forest-clothed hills cloven by winding
gorges where the sun