Chapter 19 Summary

A couple of years after the death of their father, Orion returned to Hannibal and bought a newspaper there. He took Twain out of the Courier office and made him his own apprentice for the generous wage of three and one half dollars per week. The only problem was that Orion could never afford to pay that wage, as he never made a profit on the paper. The Clemens family always seemed to struggle with money.

Still a few more years later, Orion sold that paper and moved to Muscatine. Right before that, Twain had run away to work in St. Louis, in New York where he saw the first World's Fair, and then Philadelphia for a few months. Eventually, he joined Orion in Muscatine. He left in 1856, after he found a fifty-dollar bill on the road. He advertised his find, but when...