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Title: Those Extraordinary Twins Author: Twain, Mark Language: English As this book started as an ASCII text book there are no pictures available. *** Start of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Those Extraordinary Twins" *** THOSE EXTRAORDINARY TWINS by Mark Twain Contents CHAPTER I. THE TWINS AS THEY REALLY WERE CHAPTER II. MA COOPER GETS ALL MIXED UP CHAPTER III. ANGELO IS BLUE CHAPTER IV. SUPERNATURAL CHRONOMETRY CHAPTER V. GUILT AND INNOCENCE FINELY BLENT CHAPTER VI. THE AMAZING DUEL CHAPTER VII. LUIGI DEFIES GALEN CHAPTER VIII. BAPTISM OF THE BETTER HALF CHAPTER IX. THE DRINKLESS DRUNK CHAPTER X. SO THEY HANGED LUIGI FINAL REMARKS. A man who is not born with the novel-writing gift has a troublesome time of it when he tries to build a novel. I know this from experience. He has no clear idea of his story; in fact he has no story. He merely has some people in his mind, and an incident or two, also a locality. He knows these people, he knows the selected locality, and he trusts that he can plunge those people into those incidents with interesting results. So he goes to work. To write a novel? No--that is a thought which comes later; in the beginning he is only proposing to tell a little tale; a very little tale; a six-page tale. But as it is a tale which he is not acquainted with, and can only find out what it is by listening as it goes along telling itself, it is more than apt to go on and on and on till it spreads itself into a book. I know about this, because it has happened to me so many times. And I have noticed another thing: that as the short tale grows into a long tale, the original intention (or motif) is apt to get abolished and find itself superseded by a quite different one. It was so in the case of a magazine sketch which I once started to write--a funny and fantastic sketch about a prince and a pauper; it presently assumed a grave cast of its own accord, and in that new shape spread itself out into a book. Much the same thing happened with \x93Pudd\x92nhead Wilson.\x94 I had a sufficiently hard time with that tale, because it changed itself from a farce to a tragedy while I was going along with it--a most embarrassing circumstance. But what was a great deal worse was, that it was not one story, but two stories tangled together; and they obstructed and interrupted each other at every turn and created no end of confusion and annoyance. I could not offer the book for publication, for I was afraid it would unseat the reader\x92s reason. I did not know what was the matter with it, for I had not noticed, as yet, that it was two stories in one. It took me months to make that discovery. I carried the manuscript back and forth across the Atlantic two or three times, and read it and studied over it on shipboard; and at last I saw where the difficulty lay. I had no further trouble. I pulled one of the stories out by the roots, and left the other one--a kind of literary Caesarean operation. Would the reader care to know something about the story which I pulled out? He has been told many a time how the born-and-trained novelist works. Won\x92t he let me round and complete his knowledge by telling him how the jack-leg does it? Originally the story was called \x93Those Extraordinary Twins.\x94 I meant to make it very short. I had seen a picture of a youthful Italian \x93freak\x94 or \x93freaks\x94 which was--or which were--on exhibition in our cities--a combination consisting of two heads and four arms joined to a single body and a single pair of legs--and I thought I would write an extravagantly fantastic little story with this freak of nature for hero--or heroes--a silly young miss for heroine, and two old ladies and two boys for the minor parts. I lavishly elaborated these people and their doings, of course. But the tale kept spreading along, and spreading along, and other people got to intruding themselves and taking up more and more room with their talk and their affairs. Among them came a stranger named Pudd\x92nhead Wilson, and a woman named Roxana; and presently the doings of these two pushed up into prominence a young fellow named Tom Driscoll, whose proper place was away in the obscure background. Before the book was half finished those three were taking things almost entirely into their own hands and working the whole tale as a private venture of their own--a tale which they had nothing at all to do with, by rights. When the book was finished and I came to look around to see what had become of the team I had originally started out with--Aunt Patsy Cooper, Aunt Betsy Hale, the two boys, and Rowena the light-weight heroine--they were nowhere to be seen; they had disappeared from the story some time or other. I hunted about and found them--found them stranded, idle, forgotten, and permanently useless. It was very awkward. It was awkward all around; but more particularly in the case of Rowena, because there was a love-match on, between her and one of the twins that constituted the freak, and I had worked it up to a blistering heat and thrown in a quite dramatic love-quarrel, wherein Rowena scathingly denounced her betrothed for getting drunk, and scoffed at his explanation of how it had happened, and wouldn\x92t listen to it, and had driven him from her in the usual \x93forever\x94 way; and now here she sat crying and broken-hearted; for she had found that he had spoken only the truth; that it was not he, but the other half of the freak, that had drunk the liquor that made him drunk; that her half was a prohibitionist and had never drunk a drop in his life, and, although tight as a brick three days in the week, was wholly innocent of blame; and indeed, when sober, was constantly doing all he could to reform his brother, the other half, who never got any satisfaction out of drinking, anyway, because liquor never affected him. Yes, here she was, stranded with that deep injustice of hers torturing her poor torn heart. I didn\x92t know what to do with her. I was as sorry for her as anybody could be, but the campaign was over, the book was finished, she was sidetracked, and there was no possible way of crowding her in, anywhere. I could not leave her there, of course; it would not do. After spreading her out so, and making such a to-do over her affairs, it would be absolutely necessary to account to the reader for her. I thought and thought and studied and studied; but I arrived at nothing. I finally saw plainly that there was really no way but one--I must simply give her the grand bounce. It grieved me to do it, for after associating with her so much I had come to kind of like her after a fashion, notwithstanding she was such an ass and said such stupid irritating things and was so nauseatingly sentimental. Still it had to be done. So, at the top of Chapter XVII, I put in a \x93Calendar\x94 remark concerning July the Fourth, and began the chapter with this statistic: \x93Rowena went out in the back yard after supper to see the fireworks and fell down the well and got drowned.\x94 It seemed abrupt, but I thought maybe the reader wouldn\x92t notice it, because I changed the subject right away to something else. Anyway it loosened up Rowena from where she was stuck and got her out of the way, and that was the main thing. It seemed a prompt good way of weeding out people that had got stalled, and a plenty good enough way for those others; so I hunted up the two boys and said \x93they went out back one night to stone the cat and fell down the well and got drowned.\x94 Next I searched around and found old Aunt Patsy Cooper and Aunt Betsy Hale where they were aground, and said \x93they went out back one night to visit the sick and fell down the well and got drowned.\x94 I was going to drown some of the others, but I gave up the idea, partly because I believed that if I kept that up it would arouse attention, and perhaps sympathy with those people, and partly because it was not a large well and would not hold any more anyway. Still the story was unsatisfactory. Here was a set of new characters who were become inordinately prominent and who persisted in remaining so to the end; and back yonder was an older set who made a large noise and a great to-do for a little while and then suddenly played out utterly and fell down the well. There was a radical defect somewhere, and I must search it out and cure it. The defect turned out to be the one already spoken of--two stories in one, a farce and a tragedy. So I pulled out the farce and left the tragedy. This left the original team in, but only as mere names, not as characters. Their prominence was wholly gone; they were not even worth drowning; so I removed that detail. Also I took those twins apart and made two separate men of them. They had no occasion to have foreign names now, but it was too much trouble to remove them all through, so I left them christened as they were and made no explanation. CHAPTER I. THE TWINS AS THEY REALLY WERE The conglomerate twins were brought on the stage in Chapter I of the original extravaganza. Aunt Patsy Cooper has received their letter applying for board and lodging, and Rowena, her daughter, insane with joy, is begging for a hearing of it: \x93Well, set down then, and be quiet a minute and don\x92t fly around so; it fairly makes me tired to see you. It starts off so: \x91HONORED MADAM\x92--\x94 \x93I like that, ma, don\x92t you? It shows they\x92re high-bred.\x94 \x93Yes, I noticed that when I first read it. \x91My brother and I have seen your advertisement, by chance, in a copy of your local journal\x92 \x93It\x92s so beautiful and smooth, ma-don\x92t you think so?\x94 \x93Yes, seems so to me--\x91and beg leave to take the room you offer. We are twenty-four years of age, and twins--\x92\x94 \x93Twins! How sweet! I do hope they are handsome, and I just know they are! Don\x92t you hope they are, ma?\x94 \x93Land, I ain\x92t particular. \x91We are Italians by birth--\x92\x94 \x93It\x92s so romantic! Just think there\x92s never been one in this town, and everybody will want to see them, and they\x92re all ours! Think of that!\x94 \x93--\x91but have lived long in the various countries of Europe, and several years in the United States.\x92\x94 \x93Oh, just think what wonders they\x92ve seen, ma! Won\x92t it be good to hear them talk?\x94 \x93I reckon so; yes, I reckon so. \x91Our names are Luigi and Angelo Capello--\x92\x94 \x93Beautiful, perfectly beautiful! Not like Jones and Robinson and those horrible names.\x94 \x93\x91You desire but one guest, but dear madam, if you will allow us to pay for two we will not discommode you. We will sleep together in the same bed. We have always been used to this, and prefer it.\x92 And then he goes on to say they will be down Thursday.\x94 \x93And this is Tuesday--I don\x92t know how I\x92m ever going to wait, ma! The time does drag along so, and I\x92m so dying to see them! Which of them do you reckon is the tallest, ma?\x94 \x93How do you s\x92pose I can tell, child? Mostly they are the same size-twins are.\x94 \x93\x91Well then, which do you reckon is the best looking?\x94 \x93Goodness knows--I don\x92t.\x94 \x93I think Angelo is; it\x92s the prettiest name, anyway. Don\x92t you think it\x92s a sweet name, ma?\x94 \x93Yes, it\x92s well enough. I\x92d like both of them better if I knew the way to pronounce them--the Eyetalian way, I mean. The Missouri way and the Eyetalian way is different, I judge.\x94 \x93Maybe--yes. It\x92s Luigi that writes the letter. What do you reckon is the reason Angelo didn\x92t write it?\x94 \x93Why, how can I tell? What\x92s the difference who writes it, so long as it\x92s done?\x94 \x93Oh, I hope it wasn\x92t because he is sick! You don\x92t think he is sick, do you, ma?\x94 \x93Sick your granny; what\x92s to make him sick?\x94 \x93Oh, there\x92s never any telling. These foreigners with that kind of names are so delicate, and of course that kind of names are not suited to our climate--you wouldn\x92t expect it.\x94 [And so-on and so-on, no end. The time drags along; Thursday comes: the boat arrives in a pouring storm toward midnight.] At last there was a knock at the door and the anxious family jumped to open it. Two negro men entered, each carrying a trunk, and proceeded upstairs toward the guest-room. Then followed a stupefying apparition--a double-headed human creature with four arms, one body, and a single pair of legs! It--or they, as you please--bowed with elaborate foreign formality, but the Coopers could not respond immediately; they were paralyzed. At this moment there came from the rear of the group a fervent ejaculation--\x93My lan\x92!\x94--followed by a crash of crockery, and the slave-wench Nancy stood petrified and staring, with a tray of wrecked tea-things at her feet. The incident broke the spell, and brought the family to consciousness. The beautiful heads of the new-comer bowed again, and one of them said with easy grace and dignity: \x93I crave the honor, madam and miss, to introduce to you my brother, Count Luigi Capello,\x94 (the other head bowed) \x93and myself--Count Angelo; and at the same time offer sincere apologies for the lateness of our coming, which was unavoidable,\x94 and both heads bowed again. The poor old lady was in a whirl of amazement and confusion, but she managed to stammer out: \x93I\x92m sure I\x92m glad to make your acquaintance, sir--I mean, gentlemen. As for the delay, it is nothing, don\x92t mention it. This is my daughter Rowena, sir--gentlemen. Please step into the parlor and sit down and have a bite and sup; you are dreadful wet and must be uncomfortable--both of you, I mean.\x94 But to the old lady\x92s relief they courteously excused themselves, saying it would be wrong to keep the family out of their beds longer; then each head bowed in turn and uttered a friendly good night, and the singular figure moved away in the wake of Rowena\x92s small brothers, who bore candles, and disappeared up the stairs. The widow tottered into the parlor and sank into a chair with a gasp, and Rowena followed, tongue-tied and dazed. The two sat silent in the throbbing summer heat unconscious of the million-voiced music of the mosquitoes, unconscious of the roaring gale, the lashing and thrashing of the rain along the windows and the roof, the white glare of the lightning, the tumultuous booming and bellowing of the thunder; conscious of nothing but that prodigy, that uncanny apparition that had come and gone so suddenly--that weird strange thing that was so soft-spoken and so gentle of manner and yet had shaken them up like an earthquake with the shock of its gruesome aspect. At last a cold little shudder quivered along down the widow\x92s meager frame and she said in a weak voice: \x93Ugh, it was awful just the mere look of that phillipene!\x94 Rowena did not answer. Her faculties were still caked; she had not yet found her voice. Presently the widow said, a little resentfully: \x93Always been used to sleeping together--in-fact, prefer it. And I was thinking it was to accommodate me. I thought it was very good of them, whereas a person situated as that young man is--\x94 \x93Ma, you oughtn\x92t to begin by getting up a prejudice against him. I\x92m sure he is good-hearted and means well. Both of his faces show it.\x94 \x93I\x92m not so certain about that. The one on the left--I mean the one on it\x92s left--hasn\x92t near as good a face, in my opinion, as its brother.\x94 \x93That\x92s Luigi.\x94 \x93Yes, Luigi; anyway it\x92s the dark-skinned one; the one that was west of his brother when they stood in the door. Up to all kinds of mischief and disobedience when he was a boy, I\x92ll be bound. I lay his mother had trouble to lay her hand on him when she wanted him. But the one on the right is as good as gold, I can see that.\x94 \x93That\x92s Angelo.\x94 \x93Yes, Angelo, I reckon, though I can\x92t tell t\x92other from which by their names, yet awhile. But it\x92s the right-hand one--the blond one. He has such kind blue eyes, and curly copper hair and fresh complexion--\x94 \x93And such a noble face!--oh, it is a noble face, ma, just royal, you may say! And beautiful deary me, how beautiful! But both are that; the dark one\x92s as beautiful as--a picture. There\x92s no such wonderful faces and handsome heads in this town none that even begin. And such hands, especially Angelo\x92s--so shapely and--\x94 \x93Stuff, how could you tell which they belonged to?--they had gloves on.\x94 \x93Why, didn\x92t I see them take off their hats?\x94 \x93That don\x92t signify. They might have taken off each other\x92s hats. Nobody could tell. There was just a wormy squirming of arms in the air--seemed to be a couple of dozen of them, all writhing at once, and it just made me dizzy to see them go.\x94 \x93Why, ma, I hadn\x92t any difficulty. There\x92s two arms on each shoulder--\x94 \x93There, now. One arm on each shoulder belongs to each of the creatures, don\x92t it? For a person to have two arms on one shoulder wouldn\x92t do him any good, would it? Of course not. Each has an arm on each shoulder. Now then, you tell me which of them belongs to which, if you can. They don\x92t know, themselves--they just work whichever arm comes handy. Of course they do; especially if they are in a hurry and can\x92t stop to think which belongs to which.\x94 The mother seemed to have the rights of the argument, so the daughter abandoned the struggle. Presently the widow rose with a yawn and said: \x93Poor thing, I hope it won\x92t catch cold; it was powerful wet, just drenched, you may say. I hope it has left its boots outside, so they can be dried.\x94 Then she gave a little start, and looked perplexed. \x93Now I remember I heard one of them ask Joe to call him at half after seven--I think it was the one on the left--no, it was the one to the east of the other one--but I didn\x92t hear the other one say any thing. I wonder if he wants to be called too. Do you reckon it\x92s too late to ask?\x94 \x93Why, ma, it\x92s not necessary. Calling one is calling both. If one gets up, the other\x92s got to.\x94 \x93Sho, of course; I never thought of that. Well, come along, maybe we can get some sleep, but I don\x92t know, I\x92m so shook up with what we\x92ve been through.\x94 The stranger had made an impression on the boys, too. They had a word of talk as they were getting to bed. Henry, the gentle, the humane, said: \x93I feel ever so sorry for it, don\x92t you, Joe?\x94 But Joe was a boy of this world, active, enterprising, and had a theatrical side to him: \x93Sorry? Why, how you talk! It can\x92t stir a step without attracting attention. It\x92s just grand!\x94 Henry said, reproachfully: \x93Instead of pitying it, Joe, you talk as if--\x94 \x93Talk as if what? I know one thing mighty certain: if you can fix me so I can eat for two and only have to stub toes for one, I ain\x92t going to fool away no such chance just for sentiment.\x94 The twins were wet and tired, and they proceeded to undress without any preliminary remarks. The abundance of sleeve made the partnership coat hard to get off, for it was like skinning a tarantula; but it came at last, after much tugging and perspiring. The mutual vest followed. Then the brothers stood up before the glass, and each took off his own cravat and collar. The collars were of the standing kind, and came high up under the ears, like the sides of a wheelbarrow, as required by the fashion of the day. The cravats were as broad as a bankbill, with fringed ends which stood far out to right and left like the wings of a dragon-fly, and this also was strictly in accordance with the fashion of the time. Each cravat, as to color, was in perfect taste, so far as its owner\x92s complexion was concerned--a delicate pink, in the case of the blond brother, a violent scarlet in the case of the brunette--but as a combination they broke all the laws of taste known to civilization. Nothing more fiendish and irreconcilable than those shrieking and blaspheming colors could have been contrived. The wet boots gave no end of trouble--to Luigi. When they were off at last, Angelo said, with bitterness: \x93I wish you wouldn\x92t wear such tight boots, they hurt my feet.\x94 Luigi answered with indifference: \x93My friend, when I am in command of our body, I choose my apparel according to my own convenience, as I have remarked more than several times already. When you are in command, I beg you will do as you please.\x94 Angelo was hurt, and the tears came into his eyes. There was gentle reproach in his voice, but, not anger, when he replied: \x93Luigi, I often consult your wishes, but you never consult mine. When I am in command I treat you as a guest; I try to make you feel at home; when you are in command you treat me as an intruder, you make me feel unwelcome. It embarrasses me cruelly in company, for I can see that people notice it and comment on it.\x94 \x93Oh, damn the people,\x94 responded the brother languidly, and with the air of one who is tired of the subject. A slight shudder shook the frame of Angelo, but he said nothing and the conversation ceased. Each buttoned his own share of the nightshirt in silence; then Luigi, with Paine\x92s Age of Reason in his hand, sat down in one chair and put his feet in another and lit his pipe, while Angelo took his Whole Duty of Man, and both began to read. Angelo presently began to cough; his coughing increased and became mixed with gaspings for breath, and he was finally obliged to make an appeal to his brother\x92s humanity: \x93Luigi, if you would only smoke a little milder tobacco, I am sure I could learn not to mind it in time, but this is so strong, and the pipe is so rank that--\x94 \x93Angelo, I wouldn\x92t be such a baby! I have learned to smoke in a week, and the trouble is already over with me; if you would try, you could learn too, and then you would stop spoiling my comfort with your everlasting complaints.\x94 \x93Ah, brother, that is a strong word--everlasting--and isn\x92t quite fair. I only complain when I suffocate; you know I don\x92t complain when we are in the open air.\x94 \x93Well, anyway, you could learn to smoke yourself.\x94 \x93But my principles, Luigi, you forget my principles. You would not have me do a thing which I regard as a sin?\x94 \x93Oh, bosh!\x94 The conversation ceased again, for Angelo was sick and discouraged and strangling; but after some time he closed his book and asked Luigi to sing \x93From Greenland\x92s Icy Mountains\x94 with him, but he would not, and when he tried to sing by himself Luigi did his best to drown his plaintive tenor with a rude and rollicking song delivered in a thundering bass. After the singing there was silence, and neither brother was happy. Before blowing the light out Luigi swallowed half a tumbler of whisky, and Angelo, whose sensitive organization could not endure intoxicants of any kind, took a pill to keep it from giving him the headache. CHAPTER II. MA COOPER GETS ALL MIXED UP The family sat in the breakfast-room waiting for the twins to come down. The widow was quiet, the daughter was alive with happy excitement. She said: \x93Ah, they\x92re a boon, ma, just a boon! Don\x92t you think so?\x94 \x93Laws, I hope so, I don\x92t know.\x94 \x93Why, ma, yes you do. They\x92re so fine and handsome, and high-bred and polite, so every way superior to our gawks here in this village; why, they\x92ll make life different from what it was--so humdrum and commonplace, you know--oh, you may be sure they\x92re full of accomplishments, and knowledge of the world, and all that, that will be an immense advantage to society here. Don\x92t you think so, ma?\x94 \x93Mercy on me, how should I know, and I\x92ve hardly set eyes on them yet.\x94 After a pause she added, \x93They made considerable noise after they went up.\x94 \x93Noise? Why, ma, they were singing! And it was beautiful, too.\x94 \x93Oh, it was well enough, but too mixed-up, seemed to me.\x94 \x93Now, ma, honor bright, did you ever hear \x91Greenland\x92s Icy Mountains\x92 sung sweeter--now did you?\x94 \x93If it had been sung by itself, it would have been uncommon sweet, I don\x92t deny it; but what they wanted to mix it up with \x91Old Bob Ridley\x92 for, I can\x92t make out. Why, they don\x92t go together, at all. They are not of the same nature. \x91Bob Ridley\x92 is a common rackety slam-bang secular song, one of the rippingest and rantingest and noisiest there is. I am no judge of music, and I don\x92t claim it, but in my opinion nobody can make those two songs go together right.\x94 \x93Why, ma, I thought--\x94 \x93It don\x92t make any difference what you thought, it can\x92t be done. They tried it, and to my mind it was a failure. I never heard such a crazy uproar; seemed to me, sometimes, the roof would come off; and as for the cats--well, I\x92ve lived a many a year, and seen cats aggravated in more ways than one, but I\x92ve never seen cats take on the way they took on last night.\x94 \x93Well, I don\x92t think that that goes for anything, ma, because it is the nature of cats that any sound that is unusual--\x94 \x93Unusual! You may well call it so. Now if they are going to sing duets every night, I do hope they will both sing the same tune at the same time, for in my opinion a duet that is made up of two different tunes is a mistake; especially when the tunes ain\x92t any kin to one another, that way.\x94 \x93But, ma, I think it must be a foreign custom; and it must be right too; and the best way, because they have had every opportunity to know what is right, and it don\x92t stand to reason that with their education they would do anything but what the highest musical authorities have sanctioned. You can\x92t help but admit that, ma.\x94 The argument was formidably strong; the old lady could not find any way around it; so, after thinking it over awhile she gave in with a sigh of discontent, and admitted that the daughter\x92s position was probably correct. Being vanquished, she had no mind to continue the topic at that disadvantage, and was about to seek a change when a change came of itself. A footstep was heard on the stairs, and she said: \x93There-he\x92s coming!\x94 \x93They, ma--you ought to say they--it\x92s nearer right.\x94 The new lodger, rather shoutingly dressed but looking superbly handsome, stepped with courtly carnage into the trim little breakfast-room and put out all his cordial arms at once, like one of those pocket-knives with a multiplicity of blades, and shook hands with the whole family simultaneously. He was so easy and pleasant and hearty that all embarrassment presently thawed away and disappeared, and a cheery feeling of friendliness and comradeship took its place. He--or preferably they--were asked to occupy the seat of honor at the foot of the table. They consented with thanks, and carved the beefsteak with one set of their hands while they distributed it at the same time with the other set. \x93Will you have coffee, gentlemen, or tea?\x94 \x93Coffee for Luigi, if you please, madam, tea for me.\x94 \x93Cream and sugar?\x94 \x93For me, yes, madam; Luigi takes his coffee, black. Our natures differ a good deal from each other, and our tastes also.\x94 The first time the negro girl Nancy appeared in the door and saw the two heads turned in opposite directions and both talking at once, then saw the commingling arms feed potatoes into one mouth and coffee into the other at the same time, she had to pause and pull herself out of a faintness that came over her; but after that she held her grip and was able to wait on the table with fair courage. Conversation fell naturally into the customary grooves. It was a little jerky, at first, because none of the family could get smoothly through a sentence without a wabble in it here and a break there, caused by some new surprise in the way of attitude or gesture on the part of the twins. The weather suffered the most. The weather was all finished up and disposed of, as a subject, before the simple Missourians had gotten sufficiently wonted to the spectacle of one body feeding two heads to feel composed and reconciled in the presence of so bizarre a miracle. And even after everybody\x92s mind became tranquilized there was still one slight distraction left: the hand that picked up a biscuit carried it to the wrong head, as often as any other way, and the wrong mouth devoured it. This was a puzzling thing, and marred the talk a little. It bothered the widow to such a degree that she presently dropped out of the conversation without knowing it, and fell to watching and guessing and talking to herself: \x93Now that hand is going to take that coffee to--no, it\x92s gone to the other mouth; I can\x92t understand it; and Now, here is the dark-complected hand with a potato in its fork, I\x92ll see what goes with it--there, the light-complected head\x92s got it, as sure as I live!\x94 Finally Rowena said: \x93Ma, what is the matter with you? Are you dreaming about something?\x94 The old lady came to herself and blushed; then she explained with the first random thing that came into her mind: \x93I saw Mr. Angelo take up Mr. Luigi\x92s coffee, and I thought maybe he--sha\x92n\x92t I give you a cup, Mr. Angelo?\x94 \x93Oh no, madam, I am very much obliged, but I never drink coffee, much as I would like to. You did see me take up Luigi\x92s cup, it is true, but if you noticed, I didn\x92t carry it to my mouth, but to his.\x94 \x93Y-es, I thought you did: Did you mean to?\x94 \x93How?\x94 The widow was a little embarrassed again. She said: \x93I don\x92t know but what I\x92m foolish, and you mustn\x92t mind; but you see, he got the coffee I was expecting to see you drink, and you got a potato that I thought he was going to get. So I thought it might be a mistake all around, and everybody getting what wasn\x92t intended for him.\x94 Both twins laughed and Luigi said: \x93Dear madam, there wasn\x92t any mistake. We are always helping each other that way. It is a great economy for us both; it saves time and labor. We have a system of signs which nobody can notice or understand but ourselves. If I am using both my hands and want some coffee, I make the sign and Angelo furnishes it to me; and you saw that when he needed a potato I delivered it.\x94 \x93How convenient!\x94 \x93Yes, and often of the extremest value. Take the Mississippi boats, for instance. They are always overcrowded. There is table-room for only half of the passengers, therefore they have to set a second table for the second half. The stewards rush both parties, they give them no time to eat a satisfying meal, both divisions leave the table hungry. It isn\x92t so with us. Angelo books himself for the one table, I book myself for the other. Neither of us eats anything at the other\x92s table, but just simply works--works. Thus, you see there are four hands to feed Angelo, and the same four to feed me. Each of us eats two meals.\x94 The old lady was dazed with admiration, and kept saying, \x93It is perfectly wonderful, perfectly wonderful\x94 and the boy Joe licked his chops enviously, but said nothing--at least aloud. \x93Yes,\x94 continued Luigi, \x93our construction may have its disadvantages--in fact, HAS--but it also has its compensations of one sort and another. Take travel, for instance. Travel is enormously expensive, in all countries; we have been obliged to do a vast deal of it--come, Angelo, don\x92t put any more sugar in your tea, I\x92m just over one indigestion and don\x92t want another right away--been obliged to do a deal of it, as I was saying. Well, we always travel as one person, since we occupy but one seat; so we save half the fare.\x94 \x93How romantic!\x94 interjected Rowena, with effusion. \x93Yes, my dear young lady, and how practical too, and economical. In Europe, beds in the hotels are not charged with the board, but separately--another saving, for we stood to our rights and paid for the one bed only. The landlords often insisted that as both of us occupied the bed we ought--\x94 \x93No, they didn\x92t,\x94 said Angelo. \x93They did it only twice, and in both cases it was a double bed--a rare thing in Europe--and the double bed gave them some excuse. Be fair to the landlords; twice doesn\x92t constitute \x91often.\x92\x94 \x93Well, that depends--that depends. I knew a man who fell down a well twice. He said he didn\x92t mind the first time, but he thought the second time was once too often. Have I misused that word, Mrs. Cooper?\x94 \x93To tell the truth, I was afraid you had, but it seems to look, now, like you hadn\x92t.\x94 She stopped, and was evidently struggling with the difficult problem a moment, then she added in the tone of one who is convinced without being converted, \x93It seems so, but I can\x92t somehow tell why.\x94 Rowena thought Luigi\x92s retort was wonderfully quick and bright, and she remarked to herself with satisfaction that there wasn\x92t any young native of Dawson\x92s Landing that could have risen to the occasion like that. Luigi detected the applause in her face, and expressed his pleasure and his thanks with his eyes; and so eloquently withal, that the girl was proud and pleased, and hung out the delicate sign of it on her cheeks. Luigi went on, with animation: \x93Both of us get a bath for one ticket, theater seat for one ticket, pew-rent is on the same basis, but at peep-shows we pay double.\x94 \x93We have much to be thankful for,\x94 said Angelo, impressively, with a reverent light in his eye and a reminiscent tone in his voice, \x93we have been greatly blessed. As a rule, what one of us has lacked, the other, by the bounty of Providence, has been able to supply. My brother is hardy, I am not; he is very masculine, assertive, aggressive; I am much less so. I am subject to illness, he is never ill. I cannot abide medicines, and cannot take them, but he has no prejudice against them, and--\x94 \x93Why, goodness gracious,\x94 interrupted the widow, \x93when you are sick, does he take the medicine for you?\x94 \x93Always, madam.\x94 \x93Why, I never heard such a thing in my life! I think it\x92s beautiful of you.\x94 \x93Oh, madam, it\x92s nothing, don\x92t mention it, it\x92s really nothing at all.\x94 \x93But I say it\x92s beautiful, and I stick to it!\x94 cried the widow, with a speaking moisture in her eye. \x93A well brother to take the medicine for his poor sick brother--I wish I had such a son,\x94 and she glanced reproachfully at her boys. \x93I declare I\x92ll never rest till I\x92ve shook you by the hand,\x94 and she scrambled out of her chair in a fever of generous enthusiasm, and made for the twins, blind with her tears, and began to shake. The boy Joe corrected her: \x93You\x92re shaking the wrong one, ma.\x94 This flurried her, but she made a swift change and went on shaking. \x93Got the wrong one again, ma,\x94 said the boy. \x93Oh, shut up, can\x92t you!\x94 said the widow, embarrassed and irritated. \x93Give me all your hands, I want to shake them all; for I know you are both just as good as you can be.\x94 It was a victorious thought, a master-stroke of diplomacy, though that never occurred to her and she cared nothing for diplomacy. She shook the four hands in turn cordially, and went back to her place in a state of high and fine exultation that made her look young and handsome. \x93Indeed I owe everything to Luigi,\x94 said Angelo, affectionately. \x93But for him I could not have survived our boyhood days, when we were friendless and poor--ah, so poor! We lived from hand to mouth-lived on the coarse fare of unwilling charity, and for weeks and weeks together not a morsel of food passed my lips, for its character revolted me and I could not eat it. But for Luigi I should have died. He ate for us both.\x94 \x93How noble!\x94 sighed Rowena. \x93Do you hear that?\x94 said the widow, severely, to her boys. \x93Let it be an example to you--I mean you, Joe.\x94 Joe gave his head a barely perceptible disparaging toss and said: \x93Et for both. It ain\x92t anything I\x92d \x91a\x92 done it.\x94 \x93Hush, if you haven\x92t got any better manners than that. You don\x92t see the point at all. It wasn\x92t good food.\x94 \x93I don\x92t care--it was food, and I\x92d \x91a\x92 et it if it was rotten.\x94 \x93Shame! Such language! Can\x92t you understand? They were starving--actually starving--and he ate for both, and--\x94 \x93Shucks! you gimme a chance and I\x92ll--\x94 \x93There, now--close your head! and don\x92t you open it again till you\x92re asked.\x94 [Angelo goes on and tells how his parents the Count and Countess had to fly from Florence for political reasons, and died poor in Berlin bereft of their great property by confiscation; and how he and Luigi had to travel with a freak-show during two years and suffer semi-starvation.] \x93That hateful black-bread; but I seldom ate anything during that time; that was poor Luigi\x92s affair--\x94 \x93I\x92ll never Mister him again!\x94 cried the widow, with strong emotion, \x93he\x92s Luigi to me, from this out!\x94 \x93Thank you a thousand times, madam, a thousand times! though in truth I don\x92t deserve it.\x94 \x93Ah, Luigi is always the fortunate one when honors are showering,\x94 said Angelo, plaintively; \x93now what have I done, Mrs. Cooper, that you leave me out? Come, you must strain a point in my favor.\x94 \x93Call you Angelo? Why, certainly I will; what are you thinking of! In the case of twins, why--\x94 \x93But, ma, you\x92re breaking up the story--do let him go on.\x94 \x93You keep still, Rowena Cooper, and he can go on all the better, I reckon. One interruption don\x92t hurt, it\x92s two that makes the trouble.\x94 \x93But you\x92ve added one, now, and that is three.\x94 \x93Rowena! I will not allow you to talk back at me when you have got nothing rational to say.\x94 CHAPTER III. ANGELO IS BLUE [After breakfast the whole village crowded in, and there was a grand reception in honor of the twins; and at the close of it the gifted \x93freak\x94 captured everybody\x92s admiration by sitting down at the piano and knocking out a classic four-handed piece in great style. Then the judge took it--or them--driving in his buggy and showed off his village.] All along the streets the people crowded the windows and stared at the amazing twins. Troops of small boys flocked after the buggy, excited and yelling. At first the dogs showed no interest. They thought they merely saw three men in a buggy--a matter of no consequence; but when they found out the facts of the case, they altered their opinion pretty radically, and joined the boys, expressing their minds as they came. Other dogs got interested; indeed, all the dogs. It was a spirited sight to see them come leaping fences, tearing around corners, swarming out of every bystreet and alley. The noise they made was something beyond belief--or praise. They did not seem to be moved by malice but only by prejudice, the common human prejudice against lack of conformity. If the twins turned their heads, they broke and fled in every direction, but stopped at a safe distance and faced about; and then formed and came on again as soon as the strangers showed them their back. Negroes and farmers\x92 wives took to the woods when the buggy came upon them suddenly, and altogether the drive was pleasant and animated, and a refreshment all around. [It was a long and lively drive. Angelo was a Methodist, Luigi was a Free-thinker. The judge was very proud of his Freethinkers\x92 Society, which was flourishing along in a most prosperous way and already had two members--himself and the obscure and neglected Pudd\x92nhead Wilson. It was to meet that evening, and he invited Luigi to join; a thing which Luigi was glad to do, partly because it would please himself, and partly because it would gravel Angelo.] They had now arrived at the widow\x92s gate, and the excursion was ended. The twins politely expressed their obligations for the pleasant outing which had been afforded them; to which the judge bowed his thanks, and then said he would now go and arrange for the Free-thinkers\x92 meeting, and would call for Count Luigi in the evening. \x93For you also, dear sir,\x94 he added hastily, turning to Angelo and bowing. \x93In addressing myself particularly to your brother, I was not meaning to leave you out. It was an unintentional rudeness, I assure you, and due wholly to accident--accident and preoccupation. I beg you to forgive me.\x94 His quick eye had seen the sensitive blood mount into Angelo\x92s face, betraying the wound that had been inflicted. The sting of the slight had gone deep, but the apology was so prompt, and so evidently sincere, that the hurt was almost immediately healed, and a forgiving smile testified to the kindly judge that all was well again. Concealed behind Angelo\x92s modest and unassuming exterior, and unsuspected by any but his intimates, was a lofty pride, a pride of almost abnormal proportions, indeed, and this rendered him ever the prey of slights; and although they were almost always imaginary ones, they hurt none the less on that account. By ill fortune judge Driscoll had happened to touch his sorest point, i.e., his conviction that his brother\x92s presence was welcomer everywhere than his own; that he was often invited, out of mere courtesy, where only his brother was wanted, and that in a majority of cases he would not be included in an invitation if he could be left out without offense. A sensitive nature like this is necessarily subject to moods; moods which traverse the whole gamut of feeling; moods which know all the climes of emotion, from the sunny heights of joy to the black abysses of despair. At times, in his seasons of deepest depressions, Angelo almost wished that he and his brother might become segregated from each other and be separate individuals, like other men. But of course as soon as his mind cleared and these diseased imaginings passed away, he shuddered at the repulsive thought, and earnestly prayed that it might visit him no more. To be separate, and as other men are! How awkward it would seem; how unendurable. What would he do with his hands, his arms? How would his legs feel? How odd, and strange, and grotesque every action, attitude, movement, gesture would be. To sleep by himself, eat by himself, walk by himself--how lonely, how unspeakably lonely! No, no, any fate but that. In every way and from every point, the idea was revolting. This was of course natural; to have felt otherwise would have been unnatural. He had known no life but a combined one; he had been familiar with it from his birth; he was not able to conceive of any other as being agreeable, or even bearable. To him, in the privacy of his secret thoughts, all other men were monsters, deformities: and during three-fourths of his life their aspect had filled him with what promised to be an unconquerable aversion. But at eighteen his eye began to take note of female beauty; and little by little, undefined longings grew up in his heart, under whose softening influences the old stubborn aversion gradually diminished, and finally disappeared. Men were still monstrosities to him, still deformities, and in his sober moments he had no desire to be like them, but their strange and unsocial and uncanny construction was no longer offensive to him. This had been a hard day for him, physically and mentally. He had been called in the morning before he had quite slept off the effects of the liquor which Luigi had drunk; and so, for the first half-hour had had the seedy feeling, and languor, the brooding depression, the cobwebby mouth and druggy taste that come of dissipation and are so ill a preparation for bodily or intellectual activities; the long violent strain of the reception had followed; and this had been followed, in turn, by the dreary sight-seeing, the judge\x92s wearying explanations and laudations of the sights, and the stupefying clamor of the dogs. As a congruous conclusion, a fitting end, his feelings had been hurt, a slight had been put upon him. He would have been glad to forego dinner and betake himself to rest and sleep, but he held his peace and said no word, for he knew his brother, Luigi, was fresh, unweary, full of life, spirit, energy; he would have scoffed at the idea of wasting valuable time on a bed or a sofa, and would have refused permission. CHAPTER IV. SUPERNATURAL CHRONOMETRY Rowena was dining out, Joe and Harry were belated at play, there were but three chairs and four persons that noon at the home dinner-table--the twins, the widow, and her chum, Aunt Betsy Hale. The widow soon perceived that Angelo\x92s spirits were as low as Luigi\x92s were high, and also that he had a jaded look. Her motherly solicitude was aroused, and she tried to get him interested in the talk and win him to a happier frame of mind, but the cloud of sadness remained on his countenance. Luigi lent his help, too. He used a form and a phrase which he was always accustomed to employ in these circumstances. He gave his brother an affectionate slap on the shoulder and said, encouragingly: \x93Cheer up, the worst is yet to come!\x94 But this did no good. It never did. If anything, it made the matter worse, as a rule, because it irritated Angelo. This made it a favorite with Luigi. By and by the widow said: \x93Angelo, you are tired, you\x92ve overdone yourself; you go right to bed after dinner, and get a good nap and a rest, then you\x92ll be all right.\x94 \x93Indeed, I would give anything if I could do that, madam.\x94 \x93And what\x92s to hender, I\x92d like to know? Land, the room\x92s yours to do what you please with! The idea that you can\x92t do what you like with your own!\x94 \x93But, you see, there\x92s one prime essential--an essential of the very first importance--which isn\x92t my own.\x94 \x93What is that?\x94 \x93My body.\x94 The old ladies looked puzzled, and Aunt Betsy Hale said: \x93Why bless your heart, how is that?\x94 \x93It\x92s my brother\x92s.\x94 \x93Your brother\x92s! I don\x92t quite understand. I supposed it belonged to both of you.\x94 \x93So it does. But not to both at the same time.\x94 \x93That is mighty curious; I don\x92t see how it can be. I shouldn\x92t think it could be managed that way.\x94 \x93Oh, it\x92s a good enough arrangement, and goes very well; in fact, it wouldn\x92t do to have it otherwise. I find that the teetotalers and the anti-teetotalers hire the use of the same hall for their meetings. Both parties don\x92t use it at the same time, do they?\x94 \x93You bet they don\x92t!\x94 said both old ladies in a breath. \x93And, moreover,\x94 said Aunt Betsy, \x93the Freethinkers and the Baptist Bible class use the same room over the Market house, but you can take my word for it they don\x92t mush up together and use it at the same time.\x92 \x93Very well,\x94 said Angelo, \x93you understand it now. And it stands to reason that the arrangement couldn\x92t be improved. I\x92ll prove it to you. If our legs tried to obey two wills, how could we ever get anywhere? I would start one way, Luigi would start another, at the same moment--the result would be a standstill, wouldn\x92t it?\x94 \x93As sure as you are born! Now ain\x92t that wonderful! A body would never have thought of it.\x94 \x93We should always be arguing and fussing and disputing over the merest trifles. We should lose worlds of time, for we couldn\x92t go down-stairs or up, couldn\x92t go to bed, couldn\x92t rise, couldn\x92t wash, couldn\x92t dress, couldn\x92t stand up, couldn\x92t sit down, couldn\x92t even cross our legs, without calling a meeting first and explaining the case and passing resolutions, and getting consent. It wouldn\x92t ever do--now would it?\x94 \x93Do? Why, it would wear a person out in a week! Did you ever hear anything like it, Patsy Cooper?\x94 \x93Oh, you\x92ll find there\x92s more than one thing about them that ain\x92t commonplace,\x94 said the widow, with the complacent air of a person with a property right in a novelty that is under admiring scrutiny. \x93Well, now, how ever do you manage it? I don\x92t mind saying I\x92m suffering to know.\x94 \x93He who made us,\x94 said Angelo reverently, \x93and with us this difficulty, also provided a way out of it. By a mysterious law of our being, each of us has utter and indisputable command of our body a week at a time, turn and turn about.\x94 \x93Well, I never! Now ain\x92t that beautiful!\x94 \x93Yes, it is beautiful and infinitely wise and just. The week ends every Saturday at midnight to the minute, to the second, to the last shade of a fraction of a second, infallibly, unerringly, and in that instant the one brother\x92s power over the body vanishes and the other brother takes possession, asleep or awake.\x94 \x93How marvelous are His ways, and past finding out!\x94 Luigi said: \x93So exactly to the instant does the change come, that during our stay in many of the great cities of the world, the public clocks were regulated by it; and as hundreds of thousands of private clocks and watches were set and corrected in accordance with the public clocks, we really furnished the standard time for the entire city.\x94 \x93Don\x92t tell me that He don\x92t do miracles any more! Blowing down the walls of Jericho with rams\x92 horns wa\x92n\x92t as difficult, in my opinion.\x94 \x93And that is not all,\x94 said Angelo. \x93A thing that is even more marvelous, perhaps, is the fact that the change takes note of longitude and fits itself to the meridian we are on. Luigi is in command this week. Now, if on Saturday night at a moment before midnight we could fly in an instant to a point fifteen degrees west of here, he would hold possession of the power another hour, for the change observes local time and no other.\x94 Betsy Hale was deeply impressed, and said with solemnity: \x93Patsy Cooper, for detail it lays over the Passage of the Red Sea.\x94 \x93Now, I shouldn\x92t go as far as that,\x94 said Aunt Patsy, \x93but if you\x92ve a mind to say Sodom and Gomorrah, I am with you, Betsy Hale.\x94 \x93I am agreeable, then, though I do think I was right, and I believe Parson Maltby would say the same. Well, now, there\x92s another thing. Suppose one of you wants to borrow the legs a minute from the one that\x92s got them, could he let him?\x94 \x93Yes, but we hardly ever do that. There were disagreeable results, several times, and so we very seldom ask or grant the privilege, nowadays, and we never even think of such a thing unless the case is extremely urgent. Besides, a week\x92s possession at a time seems so little that we can\x92t bear to spare a minute of it. People who have the use of their legs all the time never think of what a blessing it is, of course. It never occurs to them; it\x92s just their natural ordinary condition, and so it does not excite them at all. But when I wake up, on Sunday morning, and it\x92s my week and I feel the power all through me, oh, such a wave of exultation and thanksgiving goes surging over me, and I want to shout \x91I can walk! I can walk!\x92 Madam, do you ever, at your uprising, want to shout \x91I can walk! I can walk!\x92?\x94 \x93No, you poor unfortunate cretur\x92, but I\x92ll never get out of my bed again without doing it! Laws, to think I\x92ve had this unspeakable blessing all my long life and never had the grace to thank the good Lord that gave it to me!\x94 Tears stood in the eyes of both the old ladies and the widow said, softly: \x93Betsy Hale, we have learned something, you and me.\x94 The conversation now drifted wide, but by and by floated back once more to that admired detail, the rigid and beautiful impartiality with which the possession of power had been distributed, between the twins. Aunt Betsy saw in it a far finer justice than human law exhibits in related cases. She said: \x93In my opinion it ain\x92t right noW, and never has been right, the way a twin born a quarter of a minute sooner than the other one gets all the land and grandeurs and nobilities in the old countries and his brother has to go bare and be a nobody. Which of you was born first?\x94 Angelo\x92s head was resting against Luigi\x92s; weariness had overcome him, and for the past five minutes he had been peacefully sleeping. The old ladies had dropped their voices to a lulling drone, to help him to steal the rest his brother wouldn\x92t take him up-stairs to get. Luigi listened a moment to Angelo\x92s regular breathing, then said in a voice barely audible: \x93We were both born at the same time, but I am six months older than he is.\x94 \x93For the land\x92s sake!\x94 \x93\x91Sh! don\x92t wake him up; he wouldn\x92t like my telling this. It has always been kept secret till now.\x94 \x93But how in the world can it be? If you were both born at the same time, how can one of you be older than the other?\x94 \x93It is very simple, and I assure you it is true. I was born with a full crop of hair, he was as bald as an egg for six months. I could walk six months before he could make a step. I finished teething six months ahead of him. I began to take solids six months before he left the breast. I began to talk six months before he could say a word. Last, and absolutely unassailable proof, the sutures in my skull closed six months ahead of his. Always just that six months\x92 difference to a day. Was that accident? Nobody is going to claim that, I\x92m sure. It was ordained--it was law--it had its meaning, and we know what that meaning was. Now what does this overwhelming body of evidence establish? It establishes just one thing, and that thing it establishes beyond any peradventure whatever. Friends, we would not have it known for the world, and I must beg you to keep it strictly to yourselves, but the truth is, we are no more twins than you are.\x94 The two old ladies were stunned, paralyzed--petrified, one may almost say--and could only sit and gaze vacantly at each other for some moments; then Aunt Betsy Hale said impressively: \x93There\x92s no getting around proof like that. I do believe it\x92s the most amazing thing I ever heard of.\x94 She sat silent a moment or two and breathing hard with excitement, then she looked up and surveyed the strangers steadfastly a little while, and added: \x93Well, it does beat me, but I would have took you for twins anywhere.\x94 \x93So would I, so would I,\x94 said Aunt Patsy with the emphasis of a certainty that is not impaired by any shade of doubt. \x93Anybody would-anybody in the world, I don\x92t care who he is,\x94 said Aunt Betsy with decision. \x93You won\x92t tell,\x94 said Luigi, appealingly. \x93Oh, dear, no!\x94 answered both ladies promptly, \x93you can trust us, don\x92t you be afraid.\x94 \x93That is good of you, and kind. Never let on; treat us always as if we were twins.\x94 \x93You can depend on us,\x94 said Aunt Betsy, \x93but it won\x92t be easy, because now that I know you ain\x92t you don\x92t seem so.\x94 Luigi muttered to himself with satisfaction: \x93That swindle has gone through without change of cars.\x94 It was not very kind of him to load the poor things up with a secret like that, which would be always flying to their tongues\x92 ends every time they heard any one speak of the strangers as twins, and would become harder and harder to hang on to with every recurrence of the temptation to tell it, while the torture of retaining it would increase with every new strain that was applied; but he never thought of that, and probably would not have worried much about it if he had. A visitor was announced--some one to see the twins. They withdrew to the parlor, and the two old ladies began to discuss with interest the strange things which they had been listening to. When they had finished the matter to their satisfaction, and Aunt Betsy rose to go, she stopped to ask a question: \x93How does things come on between Roweny and Tom Driscoll?\x94 \x93Well, about the same. He writes tolerable often, and she answers tolerable seldom.\x94 \x93Where is he?\x94 \x93In St. Louis, I believe, though he\x92s such a gadabout that a body can\x92t be very certain of him, I reckon.\x94 \x93Don\x92t Roweny know?\x94 \x93Oh, yes, like enough. I haven\x92t asked her lately.\x94 \x93Do you know how him and the judge are getting along now?\x94 \x93First rate, I believe. Mrs. Pratt says so; and being right in the house, and sister to the one and aunt to t\x92other, of course she ought to know. She says the judge is real fond of him when he\x92s away; but frets when he\x92s around and is vexed with his ways, and not sorry to have him go again. He has been gone three weeks this time--a pleasant thing for both of them, I reckon.\x94 \x93Tom\x92s rather harum-scarum, but there ain\x92t anything bad in him, I guess.\x94 \x93Oh, no, he\x92s just young, that\x92s all. Still, twenty-three is old, in one way. A young man ought to be earning his living by that time. If Tom were doing that, or was even trying to do it, the judge would be a heap better satisfied with him. Tom\x92s always going to begin, but somehow he can\x92t seem to find just the opening he likes.\x94 \x93Well, now, it\x92s partly the judge\x92s own fault. Promising the boy his property wasn\x92t the way to set him to earning a fortune of his own. But what do you think--is Roweny beginning to lean any toward him, or ain\x92t she?\x94 Aunt Patsy had a secret in her bosom; she wanted to keep it there, but nature was too strong for her. She drew Aunt Betsy aside, and said in her most confidential and mysterious manner: \x93Don\x92t you breathe a syllable to a soul--I\x92m going to tell you something. In my opinion Tom Driscoll\x92s chances were considerable better yesterday than they are to-day.\x94 \x93Patsy Cooper, what do you mean?\x94 \x93It\x92s so, as sure as you\x92re born. I wish you could \x91a\x92 been at breakfast and seen for yourself.\x94 \x93You don\x92t mean it!\x94 \x93Well, if I\x92m any judge, there\x92s a leaning--there\x92s a leaning, sure.\x94 \x93My land! Which one of \x91em is it?\x94 \x93I can\x92t say for certain, but I think it\x92s the youngest one--Anjy.\x94 Then there were hand-shakings, and congratulations, and hopes, and so on, and the old ladies parted, perfectly happy--the one in knowing something which the rest of the town didn\x92t, and the other in having been the sole person able to furnish that knowledge. The visitor who had called to see the twins was the Rev. Mr. Hotchkiss, pastor of the Baptist church. At the reception Angelo had told him he had lately experienced a change in his religious views, and was now desirous of becoming a Baptist, and would immediately join Mr. Hotchkiss\x92s church. There was no time to say more, and the brief talk ended at that point. The minister was much gratified, and had dropped in for a moment now, to invite the twins to attend his Bible class at eight that evening. Angelo accepted, and was expecting Luigi to decline, but he did not, because he knew that the Bible class and the Freethinkers met in the same room, and he wanted to treat his brother to the embarrassment of being caught in free-thinking company. CHAPTER V. GUILT AND INNOCENCE FINELY BLENT [A long and vigorous quarrel follows, between the twins. And there is plenty to quarrel about, for Angelo was always seeking truth, and this obliged him to change and improve his religion with frequency, which wearied Luigi, and annoyed him too; for he had to be present at each new enlistment--which placed him in the false position of seeming to indorse and approve his brother\x92s fickleness; moreover, he had to go to Angelo\x92s prohibition meetings, and he hated them. On the other hand, when it was his week to command the legs he gave Angelo just cause of complaint, for he took him to circuses and horse-races and fandangoes, exposing him to all sorts of censure and criticism; and he drank, too; and whatever he drank went to Angelo\x92s head instead of his own and made him act disgracefully. When the evening was come, the two attended the Free-thinkers\x92 meeting, where Angelo was sad and silent; then came the Bible class and looked upon him coldly, finding him in such company. Then they went to Wilson\x92s house and Chapter XI of Pudd\x92nhead Wilson follows, which tells of the girl seen in Tom Driscoll\x92s room; and closes with the kicking of Tom by Luigi at the anti-temperance mass-meeting of the Sons of Liberty; with the addition of some account of Roxy\x92s adventures as a chamber-maid on a Mississippi boat. Her exchange of the children had been flippantly and farcically described in an earlier chapter.] Next morning all the town was a-buzz with great news; Pudd\x92nhead Wilson had a law case! The public astonishment was so great and the public curiosity so intense, that when the justice of the peace opened his court, the place was packed with people and even the windows were full. Everybody was flushed and perspiring; the summer heat was almost unendurable. Tom Driscoll had brought a charge of assault and battery against the twins. Robert Allen was retained by Driscoll, David Wilson by the defense. Tom, his native cheerfulness unannihilated by his back-breaking and bone-bruising passage across the massed heads of the Sons of Liberty the previous night, laughed his little customary laugh, and said to Wilson: \x93I\x92ve kept my promise, you see; I\x92m throwing my business your way. Sooner than I was expecting, too.\x94 \x93It\x92s very good of you--particularly if you mean to keep it up.\x94 \x93Well, I can\x92t tell about that yet. But we\x92ll see. If I find you deserve it I\x92ll take you under my protection and make your fame and fortune for you.\x94 \x93I\x92ll try to deserve it, Tom.\x94 A jury was sworn in; then Mr. Allen said: \x93We will detain your honor but a moment with this case. It is not one where any doubt of the fact of the assault can enter in. These gentlemen--the accused--kicked my client at the Market Hall last night; they kicked him with violence; with extraordinary violence; with even unprecedented violence, I may say; insomuch that he was lifted entirely off his feet and discharged into the midst of the audience. We can prove this by four hundred witnesses--we shall call but three. Mr. Harkness will take the stand.\x94 Mr. Harkness, being sworn, testified that he was chairman upon the occasion mentioned; that he was close at hand and saw the defendants in this action kick the plaintiff into the air and saw him descend among the audience. \x93Take the witness,\x94 said Allen. \x93Mr. Harkness,\x94 said Wilson, \x93you say you saw these gentlemen, my clients, kick the plaintiff. Are you sure--and please remember that you are on oath--are you perfectly sure that you saw both of them kick him, or only one? Now be careful.\x94 A bewildered look began to spread itself over the witness\x92s face. He hesitated, stammered, but got out nothing. His eyes wandered to the twins and fixed themselves there with a vacant gaze. \x93Please answer, Mr. Harkness, you are keeping the court waiting. It is a very simple question.\x94 Counsel for the prosecution broke in with impatience: \x93Your honor, the question is an irrelevant triviality. Necessarily, they both kicked him, for they have but the one pair of legs, and both are responsible for them.\x94 Wilson said, sarcastically: \x93Will your honor permit this new witness to be sworn? He seems to possess knowledge which can be of the utmost value just at this moment--knowledge which would at once dispose of what every one must see is a very difficult question in this case. Brother Allen, will you take the stand?\x94 \x93Go on with your case!\x94 said Allen, petulantly. The audience laughed, and got a warning from the court. \x93Now, Mr. Harkness,\x94 said Wilson, insinuatingly, \x93we shall have to insist upon an answer to that question.\x94 \x93I--er--well, of course, I do not absolutely know, but in my opinion--\x94 \x93Never mind your opinion, sir--answer the question.\x94 \x93I--why, I can\x92t answer it.\x94 \x93That will do, Mr. Harkness. Stand down.\x94 The audience tittered, and the discomfited witness retired in a state of great embarrassment. Mr. Wakeman took the stand and swore that he saw the twins kick the plaintiff off the platform. The defense took the witness. \x93Mr. Wakeman, you have sworn that you saw these gentlemen kick the plaintiff. Do I understand you to swear that you saw them both do it?\x94 \x93Yes, sir,\x94--with decision. \x93How do you know that both did it?\x94 \x93Because I saw them do it.\x94 The audience laughed, and got another warning from the court. \x93But by what means do you know that both, and not one, did it?\x94 \x93Well, in the first place, the insult was given to both of them equally, for they were called a pair of scissors. Of course they would both want to resent it, and so--\x94 \x93Wait! You are theorizing now. Stick to facts--counsel will attend to the arguments. Go on.\x94 \x93Well, they both went over there--that I saw.\x94 \x93Very good. Go on.\x94 \x93And they both kicked him--I swear to it.\x94 \x93Mr. Wakeman, was Count Luigi, here, willing to join the Sons of Liberty last night?\x94 \x93Yes, sir, he was. He did join, too, and drank a glass or two of whisky, like a man.\x94 \x93Was his brother willing to join?\x94 \x93No, sir, he wasn\x92t. He is a teetotaler, and was elected through a mistake.\x94 \x93Was he given a glass of whisky?\x94 \x93Yes, sir, but of course that was another mistake, and not intentional. He wouldn\x92t drink it. He set it down.\x94 A slight pause, then he added, casually and quite simply: \x93The plaintiff reached for it and hogged it.\x94 There was a fine outburst of laughter, but as the justice was caught out himself, his reprimand was not very vigorous. Mr. Allen jumped up and exclaimed: \x93I protest against these foolish irrelevancies. What have they to do with the case?\x94 Wilson said: \x93Calm yourself, brother, it was only an experiment. Now, Mr. Wakeman, if one of these gentlemen chooses to join an association and the other doesn\x92t; and if one of them enjoys whisky and the other doesn\x92t, but sets it aside and leaves it unprotected\x94 (titter from the audience), \x93it seems to show that they have independent minds, and tastes, and preferences, and that one of them is able to approve of a thing at the very moment that the other is heartily disapproving of it. Doesn\x92t it seem so to you?\x94 \x93Certainly it does. It\x92s perfectly plain.\x94 \x93Now, then, it might be--I only say it might be--that one of these brothers wanted to kick the plaintiff last night, and that the other didn\x92t want that humiliating punishment inflicted upon him in that public way and before all those people. Isn\x92t that possible?\x94 \x93Of course it is. It\x92s more than possible. I don\x92t believe the blond one would kick anybody. It was the other one that--\x94 \x93Silence!\x94 shouted the plaintiff\x92s counsel, and went on with an angry sentence which was lost in the wave of laughter that swept the house. \x93That will do, Mr. Wakeman,\x94 said Wilson, \x93you may stand down.\x94 The third witness was called. He had seen the twins kick the plaintiff. Mr. Wilson took the witness. \x93Mr. Rogers, you say you saw these accused gentlemen kick the plaintiff?\x94 \x93Yes, sir.\x94 \x93Both of them?\x94 \x93Yes, sir.\x94 \x93Which of them kicked him first?\x94 \x93Why--they--they both kicked him at the same time. \x93Are you perfectly sure of that?\x94 \x93Yes, sir.\x94 \x93What makes you sure of it?\x94 \x93Why, I stood right behind them, and saw them do it.\x94 \x93How many kicks were delivered?\x94 \x93Only one.\x94 \x93If two men kick, the result should be two kicks, shouldn\x92t it?\x94 \x93Why--why yes, as a rule.\x94 \x93Then what do you think went with the other kick?\x94 \x93I--well--the fact is, I wasn\x92t thinking of two being necessary, this time.\x94 \x93What do you think now?\x94 \x93Well, I--I\x92m sure I don\x92t quite know what to think, but I reckon that one of them did half of the kick and the other one did the other half.\x94 Somebody in the crowd sung out: \x93It\x92s the first sane thing that any of them has said.\x94 The audience applauded. The judge said: \x93Silence! or I will clear the court.\x94 Mr. Allen looked pleased, but Wilson did not seem disturbed. He said: \x93Mr. Rogers, you have favored us with what you think and what you reckon, but as thinking and reckoning are not evidence, I will now give you a chance to come out with something positive, one way or the other, and shall require you to produce it. I will ask the accused to stand up and repeat the phenomenal kick of last night.\x94 The twins stood up. \x93Now, Mr. Rogers, please stand behind them.\x94 A Voice: \x93No, stand in front!\x94 (Laughter. Silenced by the court.) Another Voice: \x93No, give Tommy another highst!\x94 (Laughter. Sharply rebuked by the court.) \x93Now, then, Mr. Rogers, two kicks shall be delivered, one after the other, and I give you my word that at least one of the two shall be delivered by one of the twins alone, without the slightest assistance from his brother. Watch sharply, for you have got to render a decision without any if\x92s and ands it.\x94 Rogers bent himself behind the twins with his palms just above his knees, in the modern attitude of the catcher at a baseball match, and riveted his eyes on the pair of legs in front of him. \x93Are you ready, Mr. Rogers?\x94 \x93Ready sir.\x94 The kick was launched. \x93Have you got that one classified, Mr. Rogers?\x94 \x93Let me study a minute, sir.\x94 \x93Take as much time as you please. Let me know when you are ready.\x94 For as much as a minute Rogers pondered, with all eyes and a breathless interest fastened upon him. Then he gave the word: \x93Ready, sir.\x94 \x93Kick!\x94 The kick that followed was an exact duplicate of the first one. \x93Now, then, Mr. Rogers, one of those kicks was an individual kick, not a mutual one. You will now state positively which was the mutual one.\x94 The witness said, with a crestfallen look: \x93I\x92ve got to give it up. There ain\x92t any man in the world that could tell t\x92other from which, sir.\x94 \x93Do you still assert that last night\x92s kick was a mutual kick?\x94 \x93Indeed, I don\x92t, sir.\x94 \x93That will do, Mr. Rogers. If my brother Allen desires to address the court, your honor, very well; but as far as I am concerned I am ready to let the case be at once delivered into the hands of this intelligent jury without comment.\x94 Mr. Justice Robinson had been in office only two months, and in that short time had not had many cases to try, of course. He had no knowledge of laws and courts except what he had picked up since he came into office. He was a sore trouble to the lawyers, for his rulings were pretty eccentric sometimes, and he stood by them with Roman simplicity and fortitude; but the people were well satisfied with him, for they saw that his intentions were always right, that he was entirely impartial, and that he usually made up in good sense what he lacked in technique, so to speak. He now perceived that there was likely to be a miscarriage of justice here, and he rose to the occasion. \x93Wait a moment, gentlemen,\x94 he said, \x93it is plain that an assault has been committed it is plain to anybody; but the way things are going, the guilty will certainly escape conviction. I can not allow this. Now---\x94 \x93But, your honor!\x94 said Wilson, interrupting him, earnestly but respectfully, \x93you are deciding the case yourself, whereas the jury--\x94 \x93Never mind the jury, Mr. Wilson; the jury will have a chance when there is a reasonable doubt for them to take hold of--which there isn\x92t, so far. There is no doubt whatever that an assault has been committed. The attempt to show that both of the accused committed it has failed. Are they both to escape justice on that account? Not in this court, if I can prevent it. It appears to have been a mistake to bring the charge against them as a corporation; each should have been charged in his capacity as an individual, and--\x94 \x93But, your honor!\x94 said Wilson, \x93in fairness to my clients I must insist that inasmuch as the prosecution did not separate the--\x94 \x93No wrong will be done your clients, sir--they will be protected; also the public and the offended laws. Mr. Allen, you will amend your pleadings, and put one of the accused on trial at a time.\x94 Wilson broke in: \x93But, your honor! this is wholly unprecedented! To imperil an accused person by arbitrarily altering and widening the charge against him in order to compass his conviction when the charge as originally brought promises to fail to convict, is a thing unheard of before.\x94 \x93Unheard of where?\x94 \x93In the courts of this or any other state.\x94 The judge said with dignity: \x93I am not acquainted with the customs of other courts, and am not concerned to know what they are. I am responsible for this court, and I cannot conscientiously allow my judgment to be warped and my judicial liberty hampered by trying to conform to the caprices of other courts, be they--\x94 \x93But, your honor, the oldest and highest courts in Europe--\x94 \x93This court is not run on the European plan, Mr. Wilson; it is not run on any plan but its own. It has a plan of its own; and that plan is, to find justice for both State and accused, no matter what happens to be practice and custom in Europe or anywhere else.\x94 (Great applause.) \x93Silence! It has not been the custom of this court to imitate other courts; it has not been the custom of this court to take shelter behind the decisions of other courts, and we will not begin now. We will do the best we can by the light that God has given us, and while this court continues to have His approval, it will remain indifferent to what other organizations may think of it.\x94 (Applause.) \x93Gentlemen, I must have order!--quiet yourselves! Mr. Allen, you will now proceed against the prisoners one at a time. Go on with the case.\x94 Allen was not at his ease. However, after whispering a moment with his client and with one or two other people, he rose and said: \x93Your honor, I find it to be reported and believed that the accused are able to act independently in many ways, but that this independence does not extend to their legs, authority over their legs being vested exclusively in the one brother during a specific term of days, and then passing to the other brother for a like term, and so on, by regular alternation. I could call witnesses who would prove that the accused had revealed to them the existence of this extraordinary fact, and had also made known which of them was in possession of the legs yesterday--and this would, of course, indicate where the guilt of the assault belongs--but as this would be mere hearsay evidence, these revelations not having been made under oath--\x94 \x93Never mind about that, Mr. Allen. It may not all be hearsay. We shall see. It may at least help to put us on the right track. Call the witnesses.\x94 \x93Then I will call Mr. John Buckstone, who is now present, and I beg that Mrs. Patsy Cooper may be sent for. Take the stand, Mr. Buckstone.\x94 Buckstone took the oath, and then testified that on the previous evening the Count Angelo Capello had protested against going to the hall, and had called all present to witness that he was going by compulsion and would not go if he could help himself. Also, that the Count Luigi had replied sharply that he would go, just the same, and that he, Count Luigi, would see to that himself. Also, that upon Count Angelo\x92s complaining about being kept on his legs so long, Count Luigi retorted with apparent surprise, \x93Your legs!--I like your impudence!\x94 \x93Now we are getting at the kernel of the thing,\x94 observed the judge, with grave and earnest satisfaction. \x93It looks as if the Count Luigi was in possession of the battery at the time of the assault.\x94 Nothing further was elicited from Mr. Buckstone on direct examination. Mr. Wilson took the witness. \x93Mr. Buckstone, about what time was it that that conversation took place?\x94 \x93Toward nine yesterday evening, sir.\x94 \x93Did you then proceed directly to the hall?\x94 \x93Yes, sir.\x94 \x93How long did it take you to go there?\x94 \x93Well, we walked; and as it was from the extreme edge of the town, and there was no hurry, I judge it took us about twenty minutes, maybe a trifle more.\x94 \x93About what hour was the kick delivered?\x94 \x93About thirteen minutes and a half to ten.\x94 \x93Admirable! You are a pattern witness, Mr. Buckstone. How did you happen to look at your watch at that particular moment?\x94 \x93I always do it when I see an assault. It\x92s likely I shall be called as a witness, and it\x92s a good point to have.\x94 \x93It would be well if others were as thoughtful. Was anything said, between the conversation at my house and the assault, upon the detail which we are now examining into?\x94 \x93No, sir.\x94 \x93If power over the mutual legs was in the possession of one brother at nine, and passed into the possession of the other one during the next thirty or forty minutes, do you think you could have detected the change?\x94 \x93By no means!\x94 \x93That is all, Mr. Buckstone.\x94 Mrs. Patsy Cooper was called. The crowd made way for her, and she came smiling and bowing through the narrow human lane, with Betsy Hale, as escort and support, smiling and bowing in her wake, the audience breaking into welcoming cheers as the old favorites filed along. The judge did not check this kindly demonstration of homage and affection, but let it run its course unrebuked. The old ladies stopped and shook hands with the twins with effusion, then gave the judge a friendly nod, and bustled into the seats provided for them. They immediately began to deliver a volley of eager questions at the friends around them: \x93What is this thing for?\x94 \x93What is that thing for?\x94 \x93Who is that young man that\x92s writing at the desk? Why, I declare, it\x92s Jack Bunce! I thought he was sick.\x94 \x93Which is the jury? Why, is that the jury? Billy Price and Job Turner, and Jack Lounsbury, and--well, I never!\x94 \x93Now who would ever \x91a\x92 thought--\x94 But they were gently called to order at this point, and asked not to talk in court. Their tongues fell silent, but the radiant interest in their faces remained, and their gratitude for the blessing of a new sensation and a novel experience still beamed undimmed from their eyes. Aunt Patsy stood up and took the oath, and Mr. Allen explained the point in issue, and asked her to go on now, in her own way, and throw as much light upon it as she could. She toyed with her reticule a moment or two, as if considering where to begin, then she said: \x93Well, the way of it is this. They are Luigi\x92s legs a week at a time, and then they are Angelo\x92s, and he can do whatever he wants to with them.\x94 \x93You are making a mistake, Aunt Patsy Cooper,\x94 said the judge. \x93You shouldn\x92t state that as a fact, because you don\x92t know it to be a fact.\x94 \x93What\x92s the reason I don\x92t?\x94 said Aunt Patsy, bridling a little. \x93What is the reason that you do know it?\x94 \x93The best in the world because they told me.\x94 \x93That isn\x92t a reason.\x94 \x93Well, for the land\x92s sake! Betsy Hale, do you hear that?\x94 \x93Hear it? I should think so,\x94 said Aunt Betsy, rising and facing the court. \x93Why, Judge, I was there and heard it myself. Luigi says to Angelo--no, it was Angelo said it to--\x94 \x93Come, come, Mrs. Hale, pray sit down, and--\x94 \x93Certainly, it\x92s all right, I\x92m going to sit down presently, but not until I\x92ve--\x94 \x93But you must sit down!\x94 \x93Must! Well, upon my word if things ain\x92t getting to a pretty pass when--\x94 The house broke into laughter, but was promptly brought to order, and meantime Mr. Allen persuaded the old lady to take her seat. Aunt Patsy continued: \x93Yes, they told me that, and I know it\x92s true. They\x92re Luigi\x92s legs this week, but--\x94 \x93Ah, they told you that, did they?\x94 said the Justice, with interest. \x93Well, no, I don\x92t know that they told me, but that\x92s neither here nor there. I know, without that, that at dinner yesterday, Angelo was as tired as a dog, and yet Luigi wouldn\x92t lend him the legs to go up-stairs and take a nap with.\x94 \x93Did he ask for them?\x94 \x93Let me see--it seems to me, somehow, that--that--Aunt Betsy, do you remember whether he--\x94 \x93Never mind about what Aunt Betsy remembers--she is not a witness; we only want to know what YOU remember yourself,\x94 said the judge. \x93Well, it does seem to me that you are most cantankerously particular about a little thing, Sim Robinson. Why, when I can\x92t remember a thing myself, I always--\x94 \x93Ah, please go on!\x94 \x93Now how can she when you keep fussing at her all the time?\x94 said Aunt Betsy. \x93Why, with a person pecking at me that way, I should get that fuzzled and fuddled that--\x94 She was on her feet again, but Allen coaxed her into her seat once more, while the court squelched the mirth of the house. Then the judge said: \x93Madam, do you know--do you absolutely know, independently of anything these gentlemen have told you--that the power over their legs passes from the one to the other regularly every week?\x94 \x93Regularly? Bless your heart, regularly ain\x92t any name for the exactness of it! All the big cities in Europe used to set the clocks by it.\x94 (Laughter, suppressed by the court.) \x93How do you know? That is the question. Please answer it plainly and squarely.\x94 \x93Don\x92t you talk to me like that, Sim Robinson--I won\x92t have it. How do I know, indeed! How do YOU know what you know? Because somebody told you. You didn\x92t invent it out of your own head, did you? Why, these twins are the truthfulest people in the world; and I don\x92t think it becomes you to sit up there and throw slurs at them when they haven\x92t been doing anything to you. And they are orphans besides--both of them. All--\x94 But Aunt Betsy was up again now, and both old ladies were talking at once and with all their might; but as the house was weltering in a storm of laughter, and the judge was hammering his desk with an iron paper-weight, one could only see them talk, not hear them. At last, when quiet was restored, the court said: \x93Let the ladies retire.\x94 \x93But, your honor, I have the right, in the interest of my clients,--to cross-exam--\x94 \x93You\x92ll not need to exercise it, Mr. Wilson--the evidence is thrown out.\x94 \x93Thrown out!\x94 said Aunt Patsy, ruffled; \x93and what\x92s it thrown out for, I\x92d like to know.\x94 \x93And so would I, Patsy Cooper. It seems to me that if we can save these poor persecuted strangers, it is our bounden duty to stand up here and talk for them till--\x94 \x93There, there, there, do sit down!\x94 It cost some trouble and a good deal of coaxing, but they were got into their seats at last. The trial was soon ended now. The twins themselves became witnesses in their own defense. They established the fact, upon oath, that the leg-power passed from one to the other every Saturday night at twelve o\x92clock sharp. But on cross-examination their counsel would not allow them to tell whose week of power the current week was. The judge insisted upon their answering, and proposed to compel them, but even the prosecution took fright and came to the rescue then, and helped stay the sturdy jurist\x92s revolutionary hand. So the case had to go to the jury with that important point hanging in the air. They were out an hour and brought in this verdict: \x93We the jury do find: 1, that an assault was committed, as charged; 2, that it was committed by one of the persons accused, he having been seen to do it by several credible witnesses; 3, but that his identity is so merged in his brother\x92s that we have not been able to tell which was him. We cannot convict both, for only one is guilty. We cannot acquit both, for only one is innocent. Our verdict is that justice has been defeated by the dispensation of God, and ask to be discharged from further duty.\x94 This was read aloud in court and brought out a burst of hearty applause. The old ladies made a spring at the twins, to shake and congratulate, but were gently disengaged by Mr. Wilson and softly crowded back into their places. The judge rose in his little tribune, laid aside his silver-bowed spectacles, roached his gray hair up with his fingers, and said, with dignity and solemnity, and even with a certain pathos: \x93In all my experience on the bench, I have not seen justice bow her head in shame in this court until this day. You little realize what far-reaching harm has just been wrought here under the fickle forms of law. Imitation is the bane of courts--I thank God that this one is free from the contamination of that vice--and in no long time you will see the fatal work of this hour seized upon by profligate so-called guardians of justice in all the wide circumstance of this planet and perpetuated in their pernicious decisions. I wash my hands of this iniquity. I would have compelled these culprits to expose their guilt, but support failed me where I had most right to expect aid and encouragement. And I was confronted by a law made in the interest of crime, which protects the criminal from testifying against himself. Yet I had precedents of my own whereby I had set aside that law on two different occasions and thus succeeded in convicting criminals to whose crimes there were no witnesses but themselves. What have you accomplished this day? Do you realize it? You have set adrift, unadmonished, in this community, two men endowed with an awful and mysterious gift, a hidden and grisly power for evil--a power by which each in his turn may commit crime after crime of the most heinous character, and no man be able to tell which is the guilty or which the innocent party in any case of them all. Look to your homes--look to your property--look to your lives--for you have need! \x93Prisoners at the bar, stand up. Through suppression of evidence, a jury of your--our--countrymen have been obliged to deliver a verdict concerning your case which stinks to heaven with the rankness of its injustice. By its terms you, the guilty one, go free with the innocent. Depart in peace, and come no more! The costs devolve upon the outraged plaintiff--another iniquity. The court stands dissolved.\x94 Almost everybody crowded forward to overwhelm the twins and their counsel with congratulations; but presently the two old aunties dug the duplicates out and bore them away in triumph through the hurrahing crowd, while lots of new friends carried Pudd\x92nhead Wilson off tavern-ward to feast him and \x93wet down\x94 his great and victorious entry into the legal arena. To Wilson, so long familiar with neglect and depreciation, this strange new incense of popularity and admiration was as a fragrance blown from the fields of paradise. A happy man was Wilson. CHAPTER VI. THE AMAZING DUEL A deputation came in the evening and conferred upon Wilson the welcome honor of a nomination for mayor; for the village has just been converted into a city by charter. Tom skulks out of challenging the twins. Judge Driscoll thereupon challenges Angelo (accused by Tom of doing the kicking); he declines, but Luigi accepts in his place against Angelo\x92s timid protest. It was late Saturday night nearing eleven. The judge and his second found the rest of the war party at the further end of the vacant ground, near the haunted house. Pudd\x92nhead Wilson advanced to meet them, and said anxiously: \x93I must say a word in behalf of my principal\x92s proxy, Count Luigi, to whom you have kindly granted the privilege of fighting my principal\x92s battle for him. It is growing late, and Count Luigi is in great trouble lest midnight shall strike before the finish.\x94 \x93It is another testimony,\x94 said Howard, approvingly. \x93That young man is fine all through. He wishes to save his brother the sorrow of fighting on the Sabbath, and he is right; it is the right and manly feeling and does him credit. We will make all possible haste.\x94 Wilson said: \x93There is also another reason--a consideration, in fact, which deeply concerns Count Luigi himself. These twins have command of their mutual legs turn about. Count Luigi is in command now; but at midnight, possession will pass to my principal, Count Angelo, and--well, you can foresee what will happen. He will march straight off the field, and carry Luigi with him.\x94 \x93Why! sure enough!\x94 cried the judge, \x93we have heard something about that extraordinary law of their being, already--nothing very definite, it is true, as regards dates and durations of power, but I see it is definite enough as regards to-night. Of course we must give Luigi every chance. Omit all the ceremonial possible, gentlemen, and place us in position.\x94 The seconds at once tossed up a coin; Howard won the choice. He placed the judge sixty feet from the haunted house and facing it; Wilson placed the twins within fifteen feet of the house and facing the judge--necessarily. The pistol-case was opened and the long slim tubes taken out; when the moonlight glinted from them a shiver went through Angelo. The doctor was a fool, but a thoroughly well-meaning one, with a kind heart and a sincere disposition to oblige, but along with it an absence of tact which often hurt its effectiveness. He brought his box of lint and bandages, and asked Angelo to feel and see how soft and comfortable they were. Angelo\x92s head fell over against Luigi\x92s in a faint, and precious time was lost in bringing him to; which provoked Luigi into expressing his mind to the doctor with a good deal of vigor and frankness. After Angelo came to he was still so weak that Luigi was obliged to drink a stiff horn of brandy to brace him up. The seconds now stepped at once to their posts, halfway between the combatants, one of them on each side of the line of fire. Wilson was to count, very deliberately, \x93One-two-three-fire!--stop!\x94 and the duelists could bang away at any time they chose during that recitation, but not after the last word. Angelo grew very nervous when he saw Wilson\x92s hand rising slowly into the air as a sign to make ready, and he leaned his head against Luigi\x92s and said: \x93Oh, please take me away from here, I can\x92t stay, I know I can\x92t!\x94 \x93What in the world are you doing? Straighten up! What\x92s the matter with you?--you\x92re in no danger--nobody\x92s going to shoot at you. Straighten up, I tell you!\x94 Angelo obeyed, just in time to hear: \x93One--!\x94 \x93Bang!\x94 Just one report, and a little tuft of white hair floated slowly to the judge\x92s feet in the moonlight. The judge did not swerve; he still stood erect and motionless, like a statue, with his pistol-arm hanging straight down at his side. He was reserving his fire. \x93Two--!\x94 \x93Three--\x93! \x93Fire--!\x94 Up came the pistol-arm instantly-Angelo dodged with the report. He said \x93Ouch!\x94 and fainted again. The doctor examined and bandaged the wound. It was of no consequence, he said--bullet through fleshy part of arm--no bones broken--the gentleman was still able to fight let the duel proceed. Next time Angelo jumped just as Luigi fired, which disordered his aim and caused him to cut a chip off of Howard\x92s ear. The judge took his time again, and when he fired Angelo jumped and got a knuckle skinned. The doctor inspected and dressed the wounds. Angelo now spoke out and said he was content with the satisfaction he had got, and if the judge--but Luigi shut him roughly up, and asked him not to make an ass of himself; adding: \x93And I want you to stop dodging. You take a great deal too prominent a part in this thing for a person who has got nothing to do with it. You should remember that you are here only by courtesy, and are without official recognition; officially you are not here at all; officially you do not even exist. To all intents and purposes you are absent from this place, and you ought for your own modesty\x92s sake to reflect that it cannot become a person who is not present here to be taking this sort of public and indecent prominence in a matter in which he is not in the slightest degree concerned. Now, don\x92t dodge again; the bullets are not for you, they are for me; if I want them dodged I will attend to it myself. I never saw a person act so.\x94 Angelo saw the reasonableness of what his brother had said, and he did try to reform, but it was of no use; both pistols went off at the same instant, and he jumped once more; he got a sharp scrape along his cheek from the judge\x92s bullet, and so deflected Luigi\x92s aim that his ball went wide and chipped a flake of skin from Pudd\x92nhead Wilson\x92s chin. The doctor attended to the wounded. By the terms, the duel was over. But Luigi was entirely out of patience, and begged for one more exchange of shots, insisting that he had had no fair chance, on account of his brother\x92s indelicate behavior. Howard was opposed to granting so unusual a privilege, but the judge took Luigi\x92s part, and added that indeed he himself might fairly be considered entitled to another trial, because although the proxy on the other side was in no way to blame for his (the judge\x92s) humiliatingly resultless work, the gentleman with whom he was fighting this duel was to blame for it, since if he had played no advantages and had held his head still, his proxy would have been disposed of early. He added: \x93Count Luigi\x92s request for another exchange is another proof that he is a brave and chivalrous gentleman, and I beg that the courtesy he asks may be accorded him.\x94 \x93I thank you most sincerely for this generosity, Judge Driscoll,\x94 said Luigi, with a polite bow, and moving to his place. Then he added--to Angelo, \x93Now hold your grip, hold your grip, I tell you, and I\x92ll land him sure!\x94 The men stood erect, their pistol-arms at their sides, the two seconds stood at their official posts, the doctor stood five paces in Wilson\x92s rear with his instruments and bandages in his hands. The deep stillness, the peaceful moonlight, the motionless figures, made an impressive picture and the impending fatal possibilities augmented this impressiveness to solemnity. Wilson\x92s hand began to rise--slowly--slowly--higher--still higher--still higher--in another moment: \x93Boom!\x94 the first stroke of midnight swung up out of the distance; Angelo was off like a deer! \x93Oh, you unspeakable traitor!\x94 wailed his brother, as they went soaring over the fence. The others stood astonished and gazing; and so stood, watching that strange spectacle until distance dissolved it and swept it from their view. Then they rubbed their eyes like people waking out of a dream. \x93Well, I\x92ve never seen anything like that before!\x94 said the judge. \x93Wilson, I am going to confess now, that I wasn\x92t quite able to believe in that leg business, and had a suspicion that it was a put-up convenience between those twins; and when Count Angelo fainted I thought I saw the whole scheme--thought it was pretext No. 1, and would be followed by others till twelve o\x92clock should arrive, and Luigi would get off with all the credit of seeming to want to fight and yet not have to fight, after all. But I was mistaken. His pluck proved it. He\x92s a brave fellow and did want to fight.\x94 \x93There isn\x92t any doubt about that,\x94 said Howard, and added, in a grieved tone, \x93but what an unworthy sort of Christian that Angelo is--I hope and believe there are not many like him. It is not right to engage in a duel on the Sabbath--I could not approve of that myself; but to finish one that has been begun--that is a duty, let the day be what it may.\x94 They strolled along, still wondering, still talking. \x93It is a curious circumstance,\x94 remarked the surgeon, halting Wilson a moment to paste some more court-plaster on his chin, which had gone to leaking blood again, \x93that in this duel neither of the parties who handled the pistols lost blood while nearly all the persons present in the mere capacity of guests got hit. I have not heard of such a thing before. Don\x92t you think it unusual?\x94 \x93Yes,\x94 said the Judge, \x93it has struck me as peculiar. Peculiar and unfortunate. I was annoyed at it, all the time. In the case of Angelo it made no great difference, because he was in a measure concerned, though not officially; but it troubled me to see the seconds compromised, and yet I knew no way to mend the matter. \x93There was no way to mend it,\x94 said Howard, whose ear was being readjusted now by the doctor; \x93the code fixes our place, and it would not have been lawful to change it. If we could have stood at your side, or behind you, or in front of you, it--but it would not have been legitimate and the other parties would have had a just right to complain of our trying to protect ourselves from danger; infractions of the code are certainly not permissible in any case whatever.\x94 Wilson offered no remarks. It seemed to him that there was very little place here for so much solemnity, but he judged that if a duel where nobody was in danger or got crippled but the seconds and the outsiders had nothing ridiculous about it for these gentlemen, his pointing out that feature would probably not help them to see it. He invited them in to take a nightcap, and Howard and the judge accepted, but the doctor said he would have to go and see how Angelo\x92s principal wound was getting on. [It was now Sunday, and in the afternoon Angelo was to be received into the Baptist communion by immersion--a doubtful prospect, the doctor feared.] CHAPTER VII. LUIGI DEFIES GALEN When the doctor arrived at Aunt Patsy Cooper\x92s house, he found the lights going and everybody up and dressed and in a great state of solicitude and excitement. The twins were stretched on a sofa in the sitting-room, Aunt Patsy was fussing at Angelo\x92s arm, Nancy was flying around under her commands, the two young boys were trying to keep out of the way and always getting in it, in order to see and wonder, Rowena stood apart, helpless with apprehension and emotion, and Luigi was growling in unappeasable fury over Angelo\x92s shameful flight. As has been reported before, the doctor was a fool--a kind-hearted and well-meaning one, but with no tact; and as he was by long odds the most learned physician in the town, and was quite well aware of it, and could talk his learning with ease and precision, and liked to show off when he had an audience, he was sometimes tempted into revealing more of a case than was good for the patient. He examined Angelo\x92s wound, and was really minded to say nothing for once; but Aunt Patsy was so anxious and so pressing that he allowed his caution to be overcome, and proceeded to empty himself as follows, with scientific relish: \x93Without going too much into detail, madam--for you would probably not understand it, anyway--I concede that great care is going to be necessary here; otherwise exudation of the esophagus is nearly sure to ensue, and this will be followed by ossification and extradition of the maxillaris superioris, which must decompose the granular surfaces of the great infusorial ganglionic system, thus obstructing the action of the posterior varioloid arteries, and precipitating compound strangulated sorosis of the valvular tissues, and ending unavoidably in the dispersion and combustion of the marsupial fluxes and the consequent embrocation of the bicuspid populo redax referendum rotulorum.\x94 A miserable silence followed. Aunt Patsy\x92s heart sank, the pallor of despair invaded her face, she was not able to speak; poor Rowena wrung her hands in privacy and silence, and said to herself in the bitterness of her young grief, \x93There is no hope--it is plain there is no hope\x94; the good-hearted negro wench, Nancy, paled to chocolate, then to orange, then to amber, and thought to herself with yearning sympathy and sorrow, \x93Po\x92 thing, he ain\x92 gwyne to las\x92 throo de half o\x92 dat\x94; small Henry choked up, and turned his head away to hide his rising tears, and his brother Joe said to himself, with a sense of loss, \x93The baptizing\x92s busted, that\x92s sure.\x94 Luigi was the only person who had any heart to speak. He said, a little bit sharply, to the doctor: \x93Well, well, there\x92s nothing to be gained by wasting precious time; give him a barrel of pills--I\x92ll take them for him.\x94 \x93You?\x94 asked the doctor. \x93Yes. Did you suppose he was going to take them himself?\x94 \x93Why, of course.\x94 \x93Well, it\x92s a mistake. He never took a dose of medicine in his life. He can\x92t.\x94 \x93Well, upon my word, it\x92s the most extraordinary thing I ever heard of!\x94 \x93Oh,\x94 said Aunt Patsy, as pleased as a mother whose child is being admired and wondered at; \x93you\x92ll find that there\x92s more about them that\x92s wonderful than their just being made in the image of God like the rest of His creatures, now you can depend on that, I tell you,\x94 and she wagged her complacent head like one who could reveal marvelous things if she chose. The boy Joe began: \x93Why, ma, they ain\x92t made in the im--\x94 \x93You shut up, and wait till you\x92re asked, Joe. I\x92ll let you know when I want help. Are you looking for something, doctor?\x94 The doctor asked for a few sheets of paper and a pen, and said he would write a prescription; which he did. It was one of Galen\x92s; in fact, it was Galen\x92s favorite, and had been slaying people for sixteen thousand years. Galen used it for everything, applied it to everything, said it would remove everything, from warts all the way through to lungs and it generally did. Galen was still the only medical authority recognized in Missouri; his practice was the only practice known to the Missouri doctors, and his prescriptions were the only ammunition they carried when they went out for game. By and by Dr. Claypool laid down his pen and read the result of his labors aloud, carefully and deliberately, for this battery must be constructed on the premises by the family, and mistakes could occur; for he wrote a doctor\x92s hand--the hand which from the beginning of time has been so disastrous to the apothecary and so profitable to the undertaker: \x93Take of afarabocca, henbane, corpobalsamum, each two drams and a half; of cloves, opium, myrrh, cyperus, each two drams; of opobalsamum, Indian leaf, cinnamon, zedoary, ginger, coftus, coral, cassia, euphorbium, gum tragacanth, frankincense, styrax calamita, Celtic, nard, spignel, hartwort, mustard, saxifrage, dill, anise, each one dram; of xylaloes, rheum ponticum, alipta, moschata, castor, spikenard, galangals, opoponax, anacardium, mastich, brimstone, peony, eringo, pulp of dates, red and white hermodactyls, roses, thyme, acorns, pennyroyal, gentian, the bark of the root of mandrake, germander, valerian, bishop\x92s-weed, bayberries, long and white pepper, xylobalsamum, carnabadium, macedonian, parsley seeds, lovage, the seeds of rue, and sinon, of each a dram and a half; of pure gold, pure silver, pearls not perforated, the blatta byzantina, the bone of the stag\x92s heart, of each the quantity of fourteen grains of wheat; of sapphire, emerald and jasper stones, each one dram; of hazel-nuts, two drams; of pellitory of Spain, shavings of ivory, calamus odoratus, each the quantity of twenty-nine grains of wheat; of honey or sugar a sufficient quantity. Boil down and skim off.\x94 \x93There,\x94 he said, \x93that will fix the patient; give his brother a dipperful every three-quarters of an hour--\x94 \x93--while he survives,\x94 muttered Luigi-- \x93--and see that the room is kept wholesomely hot, and the doors and windows closed tight. Keep Count Angelo nicely covered up with six or seven blankets, and when he is thirsty--which will be frequently--moisten a rag in the vapor of the tea kettle and let his brother suck it. When he is hungry--which will also be frequently--he must not be humored oftener than every seven or eight hours; then toast part of a cracker until it begins to brown, and give it to his brother.\x94 \x93That is all very well, as far as Angelo is concerned,\x94 said Luigi, \x93but what am I to eat?\x94 \x93I do not see that there is anything the matter with you,\x94 the doctor answered, \x93you may, of course, eat what you please.\x94 \x93And also drink what I please, I suppose?\x94 \x93Oh, certainly--at present. When the violent and continuous perspiring has reduced your strength, I shall have to reduce your diet, of course, and also bleed you, but there is no occasion for that yet awhile.\x94 He turned to Aunt Patsy and said: \x93He must be put to bed, and sat up with, and tended with the greatest care, and not allowed to stir for several days and nights.\x94 \x93For one, I\x92m sacredly thankful for that,\x94 said Luigi, \x93it postpones the funeral--I\x92m not to be drowned to-day, anyhow.\x94 Angelo said quietly to the doctor: \x93I will cheerfully submit to all your requirements, sir, up to two o\x92clock this afternoon, and will resume them after three, but cannot be confined to the house during that intermediate hour.\x94 \x93Why, may I ask?\x94 \x93Because I have entered the Baptist communion, and by appointment am to be baptised in the river at that hour.\x94 \x93Oh, insanity!--it cannot be allowed!\x94 Angelo answered with placid firmness: \x93Nothing shall prevent it, if I am alive.\x94 \x93Why, consider, my dear sir, in your condition it might prove fatal.\x94 A tender and ecstatic smile beamed from Angelo\x92s eyes, and he broke forth in a tone of joyous fervency: \x93Ah, how blessed it would be to die for such a cause--it would be martyrdom!\x94 \x93But your brother--consider your brother; you would be risking his life, too.\x94 \x93He risked mine an hour ago,\x94 responded Angelo, gloomily; \x93did he consider me?\x94 A thought swept through his mind that made him shudder. \x93If I had not run, I might have been killed in a duel on the Sabbath day, and my soul would have been lost--lost.\x94 \x93Oh, don\x92t fret, it wasn\x92t in any danger,\x94 said Luigi, irritably; \x93they wouldn\x92t waste it for a little thing like that; there\x92s a glass case all ready for it in the heavenly museum, and a pin to stick it up with.\x94 Aunt Patsy was shocked, and said: \x93Looy, Looy!--don\x92t talk so, dear!\x94 Rowena\x92s soft heart was pierced by Luigi\x92s unfeeling words, and she murmured to herself, \x93Oh, if I but had the dear privilege of protecting and defending him with my weak voice!--but alas! this sweet boon is denied me by the cruel conventions of social intercourse.\x94 \x93Get their bed ready,\x94 said Aunt Patsy to Nancy, \x93and shut up the windows and doors, and light their candles, and see that you drive all the mosquitoes out of their bar, and make up a good fire in their stove, and carry up some bags of hot ashes to lay to his feet--\x94 \x93--and a shovel of fire for his head, and a mustard plaster for his neck, and some gum shoes for his ears,\x94 Luigi interrupted, with temper; and added, to himself, \x93Damnation, I\x92m going to be roasted alive, I just know it!\x94 \x93Why, Looy! Do be quiet; I never saw such a fractious thing. A body would think you didn\x92t care for your brother.\x94 \x93I don\x92t--to that extent, Aunt Patsy. I was glad the drowning was postponed a minute ago, but I\x92m not now. No, that is all gone by; I want to be drowned.\x94 \x93You\x92ll bring a judgment on yourself just as sure as you live, if you go on like that. Why, I never heard the beat of it. Now, there--there! you\x92ve said enough. Not another word out of you--I won\x92t have it!\x94 \x93But, Aunt Patsy--\x94 \x93Luigi! Didn\x92t you hear what I told you?\x94 \x93But, Aunt Patsy, I--why, I\x92m not going to set my heart and lungs afloat in that pail of sewage which this criminal here has been prescri--\x94 \x93Yes, you are, too. You are going to be good, and do everything I tell you, like a dear,\x94 and she tapped his cheek affectionately with her finger. \x93Rowena, take the prescription and go in the kitchen and hunt up the things and lay them out for me. I\x92ll sit up with my patient the rest of the night, doctor; I can\x92t trust Nancy, she couldn\x92t make Luigi take the medicine. Of course, you\x92ll drop in again during the day. Have you got any more directions?\x94 \x93No, I believe not, Aunt Patsy. If I don\x92t get in earlier, I\x92ll be along by early candle-light, anyway. Meantime, don\x92t allow him to get out of his bed.\x94 Angelo said, with calm determination: \x93I shall be baptized at two o\x92clock. Nothing but death shall prevent me.\x94 The doctor said nothing aloud, but to himself he said: \x93Why, this chap\x92s got a manly side, after all! Physically he\x92s a coward, but morally he\x92s a lion. I\x92ll go and tell the others about this; it will raise him a good deal in their estimation--and the public will follow their lead, of course.\x94 Privately, Aunt Patsy applauded too, and was proud of Angelo\x92s courage in the moral field as she was of Luigi\x92s in the field of honor. The boy Henry was troubled, but the boy Joe said, inaudibly, and gratefully, \x93We\x92re all honky, after all; and no postponement on account of the weather.\x94 CHAPTER VIII. BAPTISM OF THE BETTER HALF By nine o\x92clock the town was humming with the news of the midnight duel, and there were but two opinions about it: one, that Luigi\x92s pluck in the field was most praiseworthy and Angelo\x92s flight most scandalous; the other, that Angelo\x92s courage in flying the field for conscience\x92 sake was as fine and creditable as was Luigi\x92s in holding the field in the face of the bullets. The one opinion was held by half of the town, the other one was maintained by the other half. The division was clean and exact, and it made two parties, an Angelo party and a Luigi party. The twins had suddenly become popular idols along with Pudd\x92nhead Wilson, and haloed with a glory as intense as his. The children talked the duel all the way to Sunday-school, their elders talked it all the way to church, the choir discussed it behind their red curtain, it usurped the place of pious thought in the \x93nigger gallery.\x94 By noon the doctor had added the news, and spread it, that Count Angelo, in spite of his wound and all warnings and supplications, was resolute in his determination to be baptized at the hour appointed. This swept the town like wildfire, and mightily reinforced the enthusiasm of the Angelo faction, who said, \x93If any doubted that it was moral courage that took him from the field, what have they to say now!\x94 Still the excitement grew. All the morning it was traveling countryward, toward all points of the compass; so, whereas before only the farmers and their wives were intending to come and witness the remarkable baptism, a general holiday was now proclaimed and the children and negroes admitted to the privileges of the occasion. All the farms for ten miles around were vacated, all the converging roads emptied long processions of wagons, horses, and yeomanry into the town. The pack and cram of people vastly exceeded any that had ever been seen in that sleepy region before. The only thing that had ever even approached it, was the time long gone by, but never forgotten, nor even referred to without wonder and pride, when two circuses and a Fourth of July fell together. But the glory of that occasion was extinguished now for good. It was but a freshet to this deluge. The great invasion massed itself on the river-bank and waited hungrily for the immense event. Waited, and wondered if it would really happen, or if the twin who was not a \x93professor\x94 would stand out and prevent it. But they were not to be disappointed. Angelo was as good as his word. He came attended by an escort of honor composed of several hundred of the best citizens, all of the Angelo party; and when the immersion was finished they escorted him back home and would even have carried him on their shoulders, but that people might think they were carrying Luigi. Far into the night the citizens continued to discuss and wonder over the strangely mated pair of incidents that had distinguished and exalted the past twenty-four hours above any other twenty-four in the history of their town for picturesqueness and splendid interest; and long before the lights were out and burghers asleep it had been decided on all hands that in capturing these twins Dawson\x92s Landing had drawn a prize in the great lottery of municipal fortune. At midnight Angelo was sleeping peacefully. His immersion had not harmed him, it had merely made him wholesomely drowsy, and he had been dead asleep many hours now. It had made Luigi drowsy, too, but he had got only brief naps, on account of his having to take the medicine every three-quarters of an hour-and Aunt Betsy Hale was there to see that he did it. When he complained and resisted, she was quietly firm with him, and said in a low voice: \x93No-no, that won\x92t do; you mustn\x92t talk, and you mustn\x92t retch and gag that way, either--you\x92ll wake up your poor brother.\x94 \x93Well, what of it, Aunt Betsy, he--\x94 \x93\x91Sh-h! Don\x92t make a noise dear. You mustn\x92t forget that your poor brother is sick and--\x94 \x93Sick, is he? Well, I wish I--\x94 \x93\x91Sh-h-h! Will you be quiet, Luigi! Here, now, take the rest of it--don\x92t keep me holding the dipper all night. I declare if you haven\x92t left a good fourth of it in the bottom! Come--that\x92s a good-- \x93Aunt Betsy, don\x92t make me! I feel like I\x92ve swallowed a cemetery; I do, indeed. Do let me rest a little--just a little; I can\x92t take any more of the devilish stuff now.\x94 \x93Luigi! Using such language here, and him just baptized! Do you want the roof to fall on you?\x94 \x93I wish to goodness it would!\x94 \x93Why, you dreadful thing! I\x92ve a good notion to--let that blanket alone; do you want your brother to catch his death?\x94 \x93Aunt Betsy, I\x92ve got to have it off, I\x92m being roasted alive; nobody could stand it--you couldn\x92t yourself.\x94 \x93Now, then, you\x92re sneezing again--I just expected it.\x94 \x93Because I\x92ve caught a cold in my head. I always do, when I go in the water with my clothes on. And it takes me weeks to get over it, too. I think it was a shame to serve me so.\x94 \x93Luigi, you are unreasonable; you know very well they couldn\x92t baptize him dry. I should think you would be willing to undergo a little inconvenience for your brother\x92s sake.\x94 \x93Inconvenience! Now how you talk, Aunt Betsy. I came as near as anything to getting drowned you saw that yourself; and do you call this inconvenience?--the room shut up as tight as a drum, and so hot the mosquitoes are trying to get out; and a cold in the head, and dying for sleep and no chance to get any--on account of this infamous medicine that that assassin prescri--\x94 \x93There, you\x92re sneezing again. I\x92m going down and mix some more of this truck for you, dear.\x94 CHAPTER IX. THE DRINKLESS DRUNK During Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday the twins grew steadily worse; but then the doctor was summoned South to attend his mother\x92s funeral, and they got well in forty-eight hours. They appeared on the street on Friday, and were welcomed with enthusiasm by the new-born parties, the Luigi and Angelo factions. The Luigi faction carried its strength into the Democratic party, the Angelo faction entered into a combination with the Whigs. The Democrats nominated Luigi for alderman under the new city government, and the Whigs put up Angelo against him. The Democrats nominated Pudd\x92nhead Wilson for mayor, and he was left alone in this glory, for the Whigs had no man who was willing to enter the lists against such a formidable opponent. No politician had scored such a compliment as this before in the history of the Mississippi Valley. The political campaign in Dawson\x92s Landing opened in a pretty warm fashion, and waxed hotter every week. Luigi\x92s whole heart was in it, and even Angelo developed a surprising amount of interest-which was natural, because he was not merely representing Whigism, a matter of no consequence to him; but he was representing something immensely finer and greater--to wit, Reform. In him was centered the hopes of the whole reform element of the town; he was the chosen and admired champion of every clique that had a pet reform of any sort or kind at heart. He was president of the great Teetotalers\x92 Union, its chiefest prophet and mouthpiece. But as the canvass went on, troubles began to spring up all around--troubles for the twins, and through them for all the parties and segments and fractions of parties. Whenever Luigi had possession of the legs, he carried Angelo to balls, rum shops, Sons of Liberty parades, horse-races, campaign riots, and everywhere else that could damage him with his party and the church; and when it was Angelo\x92s week he carried Luigi diligently to all manner of moral and religious gatherings, doing his best to regain the ground he had lost before. As a result of these double performances, there was a storm blowing all the time, an ever-rising storm, too--a storm of frantic criticism of the twins, and rage over their extravagant, incomprehensible conduct. Luigi had the final chance. The legs were his for the closing week of the canvass. He led his brother a fearful dance. But he saved his best card for the very eve of the election. There was to be a grand turnout of the Teetotalers\x92 Union that day, and Angelo was to march at the head of the procession and deliver a great oration afterward. Luigi drank a couple of glasses of whisky--which steadied his nerves and clarified his mind, but made Angelo drunk. Everybody who saw the march, saw that the Champion of the Teetotalers was half seas over, and noted also that his brother, who made no hypocritical pretensions to extra temperance virtues, was dignified and sober. This eloquent fact could not be unfruitful at the end of a hot political canvass. At the mass-meeting Angelo tried to make his great temperance oration, but was so discommoded--by hiccoughs and thickness of tongue that he had to give it up; then drowsiness overtook him and his head drooped against Luigi\x92s and he went to sleep. Luigi apologized for him, and was going on to improve his opportunity with an appeal for a moderation of what he called \x93the prevailing teetotal madness,\x94 but persons in the audience began to howl and throw things at him, and then the meeting rose in wrath and chased him home. This episode was a crusher for Angelo in another way. It destroyed his chances with Rowena. Those chances had been growing, right along, for two months. Rowena had partly confessed that she loved him, but wanted time to consider. Now the tender dream was ended, and she told him so the moment he was sober enough to understand. She said she would never marry a man who drank. \x93But I don\x92t drink,\x94 he pleaded. \x93That is nothing to the point,\x94 she said, coldly, \x93you get drunk, and that is worse.\x94 [There was a long and sufficiently idiotic discussion here, which ended as reported in a previous note.] CHAPTER X. SO THEY HANGED LUIGI Dawson\x92s Landing had a week of repose, after the election, and it needed it, for the frantic and variegated nightmare which had tormented it all through the preceding week had left it limp, haggard, and exhausted at the end. It got the week of repose because Angelo had the legs, and was in too subdued a condition to want to go out and mingle with an irritated community that had come to distrust and detest him because there was such a lack of harmony between his morals, which were confessedly excellent, and his methods of illustrating them, which were distinctly damnable. The new city officers were sworn in on the following Monday--at least all but Luigi. There was a complication in his case. His election was conceded, but he could not sit in the board of aldermen without his brother, and his brother could not sit there because he was not a member. There seemed to be no way out of the difficulty but to carry the matter into the courts, so this was resolved upon. The case was set for the Monday fortnight. In due course the time arrived. In the mean time the city government had been at a standstill, because without Luigi there was a tie in the board of aldermen, whereas with him the liquor interest--the richest in the political field--would have one majority. But the court decided that Angelo could not sit in the board with him, either in public or executive sessions, and at the same time forbade the board to deny admission to Luigi, a fairly and legally chosen alderman. The case was carried up and up from court to court, yet still the same old original decision was confirmed every time. As a result, the city government not only stood still, with its hands tied, but everything it was created to protect and care for went a steady gait toward rack and ruin. There was no way to levy a tax, so the minor officials had to resign or starve; therefore they resigned. There being no city money, the enormous legal expenses on both sides had to be defrayed by private subscription. But at last the people came to their senses, and said: \x93Pudd\x92nhead was right at the start--we ought to have hired the official half of that human phillipene to resign; but it\x92s too late now; some of us haven\x92t got anything left to hire him with.\x94 \x93Yes, we have,\x94 said another citizen, \x93we\x92ve got this\x94--and he produced a halter. Many shouted: \x93That\x92s the ticket.\x94 But others said: \x93No--Count Angelo is innocent; we mustn\x92t hang him.\x94 \x93Who said anything about hanging him? We are only going to hang the other one.\x94 \x93Then that is all right--there is no objection to that.\x94 So they hanged Luigi. And so ends the history of \x93Those Extraordinary Twins.\x94 FINAL REMARKS As you see, it was an extravagant sort of a tale, and had no purpose but to exhibit that monstrous \x93freak\x94 in all sorts of grotesque lights. But when Roxy wandered into the tale she had to be furnished with something to do; so she changed the children in the cradle; this necessitated the invention of a reason for it; this, in turn, resulted in making the children prominent personages--nothing could prevent it of course. Their career began to take a tragic aspect, and some one had to be brought in to help work the machinery; so Pudd\x92nhead Wilson was introduced and taken on trial. By this time the whole show was being run by the new people and in their interest, and the original show was become side-tracked and forgotten; the twin-monster, and the heroine, and the lads, and the old ladies had dwindled to inconsequentialities and were merely in the way. Their story was one story, the new people\x92s story was another story, and there was no connection between them, no interdependence, no kinship. It is not practicable or rational to try to tell two stories at the same time; so I dug out the farce and left the tragedy. The reader already knew how the expert works; he knows now how the other kind do it. MARK TWAIN. *** End of this LibraryBlog Digital Book "Those Extraordinary Twins" *** Copyright 2023 LibraryBlog. All rights reserved.