Dear William Dean Howells, Joseph Hopkins Twichell, Joseph T. Goodman,and other old friends of Mark Twain:I cannot let these volumes go to press without some grateful word to youwho have helped me during the six years and more that have gone to theirmaking.First, I want to confess how I have envied you your association withMark Twain in those days when you and he "went gipsying, a long timeago." Next, I want to express my wonder at your willingness to give meso unstintedly from your precious letters and memories, when it is inthe nature of man to hoard such treasures, for himself and for those whofollow him. And, lastly, I want to tell you that I do not envy you somuch, any more, for in these chapters, one after another, through yourgrace, I have gone gipsying with you all. Neither do I wonder now, forI have come to know that out of your love for him grew that greaterunselfishness (or divine selfishness, as he himself might have termedit), and that nothing short of the fullest you could do for his memorywould have contented your hearts.My gratitude is measureless; and it is world-wide, for there is no landso distant that it does not contain some one who has eagerly contributedto the story. Only, I seem so poorly able to put my thanks into words.Albert Bigelow Paine.PREFATORY NOTECertain happenings as recorded in this work will be found to differmaterially from the same incidents and episodes as set down in thewritings of Mr. Clemens himself. Mark Twain's spirit was built of thevery fabric of truth, so far as moral intent was concerned, but in hisearlier autobiographical writings--and most of his earlier writings wereautobiographical--he made no real pretense to accuracy of time, place,or circumstance--seeking, as he said, "only to tell a good story"--whilein later years an ever-vivid imagination and a capricious memory madehistory difficult, even when, as in his so-called "Autobiography," hiseffort was in the direction of fact."When I was younger I could remember anything, whether it happened ornot," he once said, quaintly, "but I am getting old, and soon I shallremember only the latter."The reader may be assured, where discrepancies occur, that the writerof this memoir has obtained his data from direct and positive sources:letters, diaries, account-books, or other immediate memoranda; alsofrom the concurring testimony of eye-witnesses, supported by a unityof circumstance and conditions, and not from hearsay or vagrant printeditems.