old colored woman's
story, except to begin it at the beginning, instead of the middle,
as she did--and traveled both ways.

Howells in his Recollections tells of the business anxiety in the
Atlantic office in the effort to estimate the story's pecuniary value.
Clemens and Harte had raised literary rates enormously; the latter was
reputed to have received as much as five cents a word from affluent
newspapers! But the Atlantic was poor, and when sixty dollars was
finally decided upon for the three pages (about two and a half cents a
word) the rate was regarded as handsome--without precedent in Atlantic
history. Howells adds that as much as forty times this amount was
sometimes offered to Mark Twain in later years. Even in '74 he had
received a much higher rate than that offered by the Atlantic,--but no
acceptance, then, or later, ever made him happier, or seemed more richly
rewarded.

"A True Story, Repeated Word for Word as I Heard It" was precisely what
it claimed to be.--[Atlantic Monthly for November, 1874; also included
in Sketches New and Old.]--Auntie Cord, the Auntie Rachel of that tale,
cook at Quarry Farm, was a Virginia negress who had been twice sold as
a slave, and was proud of the fact; particularly proud that she had
brought $1,000 on the block. All her children had been sold away from
her, but it was a long time ago, and now at sixty she was fat and
seemingly without care. She had told her story to Mrs. Crane, who had
more than once tried to persuade her to tell it to Clemens; but Auntie
Cord was reluctant. One evening, however, when the family sat on the
front veranda in the moonlight, looking down on the picture city, as
was their habit, Auntie Cord came around to say good night, and Clemens
engaged her in conversation. He led up to her story, and almost before
she knew it she was seated at his feet telling the strange tale in
almost the exact words in which it was set down by him next morning.
It gave Mark Twain a chance to exercise two of his chief
gifts--transcription and portrayal. He was always greater at these
things than at invention. Auntie Cord's story is a little masterpiece.

He wished to do more with Auntie Cord and her associates of the farm,
for they were extraordinarily interesting. Two other negroes on the
place, John Lewis and his wife (we shall hear notably of Lewis later),
were not always on terms of amity with Auntie Cord. They disagreed
on religion, and there were frequent