t plays. They could not remember a time when they did
not take part in evening charades--a favorite amusement in the Clemens
home.

Mark Twain, who always loved his home and played with his children,
invented the charades and their parts for them, at first, but as they
grew older they did not need much help. With the Twichell and Warner
children they organized a little company for their productions, and
entertained the assembled households. They did not make any preparation
for their parts. A word was selected and the syllables of it whispered
to the little actors. Then they withdrew to the hall, where all sorts of
costumes had been laid out for the evening, dressed their parts, and each
group marched into the library, performed its syllable, and retired,
leaving the audience of parents to guess the answer. Now and then, even
at this early day, they gave little plays, and of course Mark Twain could
not resist joining them. In time the plays took the place of the
charades and became quite elaborate, with a stage and scenery, but we
shall hear of this later on.

"The Prince and the Pauper" came to an end in due season, in spite of the
wish of both author and audience for it to go on forever. It was not
published at once, for several reasons, the main one being that "A Tramp
Abroad" had just been issued from the press, and a second book might
interfere with its sale.

As it was, the "Tramp" proved a successful book--never as successful as
the "Innocents," for neither its humor nor its description had quite the
fresh quality of the earlier work. In the beginning, however, the sales
were large, the advance orders amounting to twenty-five thousand copies,
and the return to the author forty thousand dollars for the first year.

XLI.

GENERAL GRANT AT HARTFORD

A third little girl came to the Clemens household during the summer of
1880. They were then at Quarry Farm, and Clemens wrote to his friend
Twichell:

"DEAR OLD JOE,--Concerning Jean Clemens, if anybody said he 'didn't
see no p'ints about that frog that's any better than any other
frog,' I should think he was convicting himself of being a pretty
poor sort of an observer. . . It is curious to note the change in
the stock-quotations of the Affection Board. Four weeks ago the
children put Mama at the head of the list right along, where she has
always been, but now:

Jean
Mama
Motley