saw not that that frog had nothing of better than
each frog" (Je ne vois pas que cette grenouille ait mieux qu'aucune
grenouille). (If that isn't grammar gone to seed then I count myself no
judge.--M. T.)

"Possible that you not it saw not," said Smiley; "possible that you you
comprehend frogs; possible that you not you there comprehend nothing;
possible that you had of the experience, and possible that you not be
but an amateur. Of all manner (de toute maniere) I bet forty dollars
that she batter in jumping, no matter which frog of the county of
Calaveras."

He included a number of sketches originally published with the Frog,
also a selection from the "Memoranda" and Buffalo Express contributions,
and he put in the story of Auntie Cord, with some matter which had never
hitherto appeared. True Williams illustrated the book, but either it
furnished him no inspiration or he was allowed too much of another sort,
for the pictures do not compare with his earlier work.

Among the new matter in the book were-"Some Fables for Good Old Boys
and Girls," in which certain wood creatures are supposed to make a
scientific excursion into a place at some time occupied by men. It is
the most pretentious feature of the book, and in its way about as good
as any. Like Gulliver's Travels, its object was satire, but its result
is also interest.

Clemens was very anxious that Howells should be first to review this
volume. He had a superstition that Howells's verdicts were echoed by
the lesser reviewers, and that a book was made or damned accordingly;
a belief hardly warranted, for the review has seldom been written that
meant to any book the difference between success and failure. Howells's
review of Sketches may be offered as a case in point. It was highly
commendatory, much more so than the notice of the 'Innocents' had been,
or even that of 'Roughing It', also more extensive than the latter. Yet
after the initial sale of some twenty thousand copies, mainly on the
strength of the author's reputation, the book made a comparatively poor
showing, and soon lagged far behind its predecessors.

We cannot judge, of course, the taste of that day, but it appears now
an unattractive, incoherent volume. The pictures were absurdly bad, the
sketches were of unequal merit. Many of them are amusing, some of them
delightful, but most of them seem ephemeral. If we except "The Jumping
Frog," and possibly "A True Story" (and the latter was altogether ou