The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County
The Story of the Bad Little Boy
The Facts Concerning the Recent Resignation
Cannibalism in the Cars
Legend of the Capitoline Venus
Running for Governor
How I Edited an Agricultural Paper
Story of the Good Little Boy
The Facts in the Great Beef Contract
A Medieval Romance
Journalism in Tennessee
A True Story
A Curious Experience
The Stolen White Elephant
A Ghost Story
The Californian''s Tale
Is He Living or Is He Dead?
The 1,000,000 Bank-Note
The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg
A Dog''s Tale
The $ 30,000 Bequest
The Diary of Adam and Eve
內容試閱：
When I was twenty-seven years old, I was a
mining-broker’s clerk in San Francisco, and an expert in all the
details of stock traffic. I was alone in the world, and had nothing
to depend upon but my wits and a clean reputation; but these were
setting my feet in the road to eventual fortune, and I was content
with the prospect.
My time was my own after the afternoon board, Saturdays, and I was
accustomed to put it in on a little sail-boat on the bay. One day I
ventured too far, and was carried out to sea. Just at nightfall,
when hope was about gone, I was picked up by a small brig which was
bound for London. It was a long and stormy voyage, and they made me
work my passage without pay, as a common sailor. When I stepped
ashore in London my clothes were ragged and shabby, and I had only
a dollar in my pocket. This money fed and sheltered me twenty-four
hours. During the next twenty-four I went without food and
shelter.
About ten o’clock on the following morning,
seedy and hungry, I was dragging myself along Portland Place, when
a child that was passing, towed by a nurse-maid, tossed a luscious
big pear - minus one bite - into the gutter. I stopped, of course,
and fastened my desiring eye on that muddy treasure. My mouth
watered for it, my stomach craved it, my whole being begged for it.
But every time I made a move to get it some passing eye detected my
purpose, and of course I straightened up then, and looked
indifferent, and pretended that I hadn’t been thinking about the
pear at all. This same thing kept happening and happening, and I
couldn’t get the pear. I was just getting desperate enough to brave
all the shame, and to seize it, when a window behind me was raised,
and a gentleman spoke out of it, saying:
“Step in here, please.”
I was admitted by a gorgeous flunkey, and shown
into a sumptuous room where a couple of elderly gentlemen were
sitting. They sent away the servant, and made me sit down. They had
just finished their breakfast, and the sight of the remains of it
almost overpowered me. I could hardly keep my wits together in the
presence of that food, but as I was not asked to sample it, I had
to bear my trouble as best I could.
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