In Mark Twain’s Bermuda chapters entitled Idle Notes of an Idle Excursion he tells of an old sea captain, one Hurricane Jones, who explained biblical miracles in a practical, even if somewhat startling, fashion.  In his story of the prophets of Baal, for instance, the old captain declared that the burning water was nothing more nor less than petroleum.  Upon reading the “notes,” Professor Phelps of Yale wrote that the same method of explaining miracles had been offered by Sir Thomas Browne.

     Perhaps it may be added that Captain Hurricane Jones also appears in
     Roughing It, as Captain Ned Blakely.

To Professor William Lyon Phelps;

         &nb
sp;                                        YaleUniversity,
                                             new York, April 24, 1901. 
My dear sir,—­I was not aware that old Sir Thomas had anticipated that story, and I am much obliged to you for furnishing me the paragraph. t is curious that the same idea should leave entered two heads so unlike as the head of that wise old philosopher and that of Captain Ned Wakeman, a splendidly uncultured old sailor, but in his own opinion a thinker by divine right.  He was an old friend of mine of many years’ standing; I made two or three voyages with him, and found him a darling in many ways.  The petroleum story was not told to me; he told it to Joe Twichell, who ran across him by accident on a sea voyage where I think the two were the only passengers.  A delicious pair, and admirably mated, they took to each other at once and became as thick as thieves.  Joe was passing under a fictitious name, and old Wakeman didn’t suspect that he was a parson; so he gave his profanity full swing, and he was a master of that great art.  You probably know Twichell, and will know that that is a kind of refreshment which he is very capable of enjoying. 
                    Sincerely yours,
                              S. L. Clemens.

For the summer Clemens and his family found a comfortable lodge in the Adirondacks—­a log cabin called “The Lair”—­on Saranac Lake.  Soon after his arrival there he received an invitation to attend the celebration of Missouri’s eightieth anniversary.  He sent the following letter: 

To Edward L. Dimmitt, in St. Louis: 

Among the Adirondack Lakes, July 19, 1901.  Dear Mr. Dimmitt,—­By an error in the plans, things go wrong end first in this world, and much precious time is lost and matters of urgent importance are fatally retarded.  Invitations which a brisk young fellow should get, and which would transport him with joy, are delayed and impeded and obstructed until they are fifty years overdue when they reach him.

It has happened again in this case.

When I was a boy in Missouri I was always on the lookout for invitations but they always miscarried and went wandering through the aisles of time; and now they are arriving when I am old and rheumatic and can’t travel and must lose my chance.