Papa had only three days to learn the part in, but still we were all sure that he could do it.  The scene that he acted in was the scene between Miles Hendon and the Prince, the “Prithee, pour the water” scene.  I was the Prince and papa and I rehearsed together two or three times a day for the three days before the appointed evening.  Papa acted his part beautifully, and he added to the scene, making it a good deal longer.  He was inexpressibly funny, with his great slouch hat and gait——­oh such a gait!  Papa made the Miles Hendon scene a splendid success and every one was delighted with the scene, and papa too.  We had great fun with our “Prince and Pauper,” and I think we none of us shall forget how immensely funny papa was in it.  He certainly could have been an actor as well as an author.

The holidays over, Cable and Clemens were off on the circuit again.  At Rochester an incident happened which led to the writing of one of Mark Twain’s important books, ‘A Connecticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court’.  Clemens and Cable had wandered into a book-store for the purpose of finding something to read.  Pulling over some volumes on one of the tables, Clemens happened to pick up a little green, cloth-bound book, and after looking at the title turned the pages rather curiously and with increasing interest.

“Cable,” he said, “do you know anything about this book, the Arthurian legends of Sir Thomas Malory, Morte Arthure?”

Cable answered:  “Mark, that is one of the most beautiful books in the world.  Let me buy it for you.  You will love it more than any book you ever read.”

So Clemens came to know the old chronicler’s version of the rare Round Table legends, and from that first acquaintance with them to the last days of his life seldom let the book go far from him.  He read and reread those quaint, stately tales and reverenced their beauty, while fairly reveling in the absurdities of that ancient day.  Sir Ector’s lament he regarded as one of the most simply beautiful pieces of writing in the English tongue, and some of the combats and quests as the most ridiculous absurdities in romance.  Presently he conceived the idea of linking that day, with its customs, costumes, and abuses, with the progress of the present, or carrying back into that age of magicians and armor and superstition and cruelties a brisk American of progressive ideas who would institute reforms.  His note-book began to be filled with memoranda of situations and possibilities for the tale he had in mind.  These were vague, unformed fancies as yet, and it would be a long time before the story would become a fact.  This was the first entry: