he sent another hasty line.

"I take back the remark that I can't write for the January number,
for Twichell and I have had a long walk in the woods, and I got to
telling him about old Mississippi days of steam-boating glory and
grandeur as I saw them (during four years) from the pilot-house. He
said, 'What a virgin subject to hurl into a magazine!' I hadn't
thought of that before. Would you like a series of papers to run
through three months, or six, or nine--or about four months, say?"

Howells wrote at once, welcoming the idea. Clemens forthwith sent the
first instalment of that marvelous series of river chapters which rank
to-day among the very best of his work. As pictures of the vanished
Mississippi life they are so real, so convincing, so full of charm that
they can never grow old. As long as any one reads of the Mississippi
they will look up those chapters of Mark Twain's piloting days. When the
first number appeared, John Hay wrote:

"It is perfect; no more, no less. I don't see how you do it."

The "Old Times" chapter ran through seven numbers of the "Atlantic," and
show Mark Twain at his very best. They form now most of the early
chapters of "Life on the Mississippi." The remainder of that book was
added about seven years later.

Those were busy literary days for Mark Twain. Writing the river chapters
carried him back, and hardly had he finished them when he took up the
neglected story of "Tom and Huck," and finished that under full steam.
He at first thought of publishing it in the "Atlantic", but decided
against this plan. He sent Howells the manuscript to read, and received
the fullest praise. Howells wrote:

"It is altogether the best boy's story I ever read. It will be an
immense success."

Clemens, however, delayed publication. He had another volume in press--a
collection of his sketches--among them the "Jumping Frog," and others of
his California days. The "Jumping Frog" had been translated into French,
and in this book Mark Twain published the French version and then a
literal retranslation of his own, which is one of the most amusing
features in the volume. As an example, the stranger's remark, "I don't
see no p'ints about that frog that's any better than any other frog," in
the literal retranslation becomes, "I no saw not that that frog had
nothing of better than each frog," and Mark Twain parenthetically adds,
"If that isn't grammar gone to seed, then I count