"Mark Twain. Interview " - читать интересную книгу автора

you, any brothers or sisters?
A. Eh! I-- I-- I think so,-- yes,-- but I. don't remember.
Q. Well, that is the most extraordinary statement I ever heard!
A. Why, what makes you think that?
Q. How could I think otherwise? Why, look here! Who is this a picture
of on the wall? Isn't that a brother of yours?
Л. Oh! yes, yes, yes! Now you remind me of it; that was a brother of
mine. That's William,-- Bill we called him. Poor old Bill!
Q. Why? Is he dead, then?
A. Ah, well, I suppose so. We never could tell. There was a great
mystery about it.
Q. That is sad, very sad. He disappeared, then?
A. Well, yes, in a sort of general way. We buried him.
Q. Buried him! Buried him without knowing whether he was dead
or not?
A. Oh, no! Not that. He was dead enough.
Q. Well, I confess that I can't understand this. If you buried him and
you knew he was dead--
A. No! no! We only thought he was.
Q. Oh, I see! He came to life again?
A. I bet he didn't.
Q. Well, I never heard anything like this. Somebody was dead. Somebody
was buried. Now, where was the mystery?
A. Ah, that's just it! That's it exactly. You see, we were twins,--
defunct and I,-- and we got mixed in the bath-tub when we were only two
weeks old, and one of us was drowned. But we didn't know which. Some think
it was Bill. Some think it was me.
Q. Well, that is remarkable. What do you think?
A. Goodness knows! I would give whole worlds to know.⁹
This
solemn, this awful mystery has cast a gloom over my whole life. But I will
tell you a secret now, which I never have revealed to any creature before.
One of us had a peculiar mark,-- a large mole on the back of his left
hand,-- that was me. That child was the one that was drowned!
Q. Very well, then, I don't see that there is any mystery about
it,
after all.
A. You don't? Well, I do. Anyway I don't see how they could ever
have
been such a blundering lot as to go and bury the wrong"child. But 'sh!--
don't mention it where the family can hear of it. Heaven knows they have
heart-breaking troubles enough without adding this.
Q. Well, I believe I have got material enough for the present, and I am
very much obliged to you, for the pains you have taken. But I was a good
deal interested in that account of Aaron Burr's funeral. Would you mind
telling me what particular "circumstance it was that made you think Burr was
such a remarkable man?
A. Oh, it was a mere trifle! Not one man in fifty would have noticed
it
at all. When the sermon was over, and the procession all ready to start for