With a family of eight, now, including Jennie, the slavegirl, more room was badly needed, and he began building without delay.  The result was not a mansion, by any means, being still of the one-story pattern, but it was more commodious than the tiny two-room affair.  The rooms were larger, and there was at least one ell, or extension, for kitchen and dining-room uses.  This house, completed in 1836, occupied by the Clemens family during the remainder of the years spent in Florida, was often in later days pointed out as Mark Twain’s birthplace.  It missed that distinction by a few months, though its honor was sufficient in having sheltered his early childhood.—­[This house is no longer standing.  When it was torn down several years ago, portions of it were carried off and manufactured into souvenirs.  Mark Twain himself disclaimed it as his birthplace, and once wrote on a photograph of it:  “No, it is too stylish, it is not my birthplace.”]

IV

BEGINNING A LONG JOURNEY

It was not a robust childhood.  The new baby managed to go through the winter—­a matter of comment among the family and neighbors.  Added strength came, but slowly; “Little Sam,” as they called him, was always delicate during those early years.

It was a curious childhood, full of weird, fantastic impressions and contradictory influences, stimulating alike to the imagination and that embryo philosophy of life which begins almost with infancy.  John Clemens seldom devoted any time to the company of his children.  He looked after their comfort and mental development as well as he could, and gave advice on occasion.  He bought a book now and then—­sometimes a picture-book —­and subscribed for Peter Parley’s Magazine, a marvel of delight to the older children, but he did not join in their amusements, and he rarely, or never, laughed.  Mark Twain did not remember ever having seen or heard his father laugh.  The problem of supplying food was a somber one to John Clemens; also, he was working on a perpetual-motion machine at this period, which absorbed his spare time, and, to the inventor at least, was not a mirthful occupation.  Jane Clemens was busy, too.  Her sense of humor did not die, but with added cares and years her temper as well as her features became sharper, and it was just as well to be fairly out of range when she was busy with her employments.

Little Sam’s companions were his brothers and sisters, all older than himself:  Orion, ten years his senior, followed by Pamela and Margaret at intervals of two and three years, then by Benjamin, a kindly little lad whose gentle life was chiefly devoted to looking after the baby brother, three years his junior.  But in addition to these associations, there were the still more potent influences Of that day and section, the intimate, enveloping institution of slavery, the daily companionship of the slaves.  All the children of that time were fond of the negroes and confided in them.  They would, in fact, have been lost without such protection and company.