Chapters 43-45 Summary

Twain returns to the subject of money. First, he remembers his brother Orion again, and all of his financial disasters. Orion died at the age of 72, in 1898. He died at his kitchen table, mid-word with pencil in hand.. It gives Twain some comfort to think that Orion's difficult life had a swift and painless ending.

Twain then addresses the subject of his own adventures with money. He says he has always had a talent for being swindled. He discusses how Elisha Bliss swindled him out of profits that were rightfully due on his books. Even after Bliss died, though, he failed to use the opportunity to insist that the American Publishing Company make it right. Instead of staying with the company and insisting on terms that would have compensated him, Twain went to another company for a time, which was not...