LITTLE BESSIE WOULD ASSIST PROVIDENCE
(See Chapter cclxxxii)
[It is dull, and I need wholesome excitements and distractions; so I will go lightly excursioning along the primrose path of theology.]
Little Bessie was nearly three years old. She was a good child, and not shallow, not frivolous, but meditative and thoughtful, and much given to thinking out the reasons of things and trying to make them harmonize with results. One day she said:
“Mama, why is there so much pain and sorrow and suffering? What is it all for?”
It was an easy question, and mama had no difficulty in answering it:
“It is for our good, my child. In His wisdom and mercy the Lord sends us these afflictions to discipline us and make us better.”
“Is it He that sends them?”
“Yes.”
“Does He send all of them, mama?”
“Yes, dear, all of them. None of them comes by accident; He alone sends them, and always out of love for us, and to make us better.”
“Isn't it strange?”
“Strange? Why, no, I have never thought of it in that way. I have not heard any one call it strange before. It has always seemed natural and right to me, and wise and most kindly and merciful.”
“Who first thought of it like that, mama? Was it you?”
“Oh no, child, I was taught it.”
“Who taught you so, mama?”
“Why, really, I don't know—I can't remember. My mother, I suppose; or the preacher. But it's a thing that everybody knows.”
“Well, anyway, it does seem strange. Did He give Billy Norris the typhus?”
“Yes.”
“What for?”
“Why, to discipline him and make him good.”
“But he died, mama, and so it couldn't make him good.”
“Well, then, I suppose it was for some other reason. We know it was a good reason, whatever it was.”
“What do you think it was, mama?”
“Oh, you ask so many questions! I think it was to discipline his parents.”
“Well, then, it wasn't fair, mama. Why should his life be taken away for their sake, when he wasn't doing anything?”
“Oh, I don't know! I only know it was for a good and wise and merciful reason.”
“What reason, mama?”
“I think—I think-well, it was a judgment; it was to punish them for some sin they had committed.”
“But he was the one that was punished, mama. Was that right?”
“Certainly, certainly. He does nothing that isn't right and wise and merciful. You can't understand these things now, dear, but when you are grown up you will understand them, and then you will see that they are just and wise.”
After a pause:
“Did He make the roof fall in on the stranger that was trying to save the crippled old woman from the fire, mama?”
“Yes, my child. Wait! Don't ask me why, because I don't know. I only know it was to discipline some one, or be a judgment upon somebody, or to show His power.”
“That drunken man that stuck a pitchfork into Mrs. Welch's baby when—”
“Never mind about it, you needn't go into particulars; it was to discipline the child—that much is certain, anyway.”
“Mama, Mr. Burgess said in his sermon that billions of little creatures are sent into us to give us cholera, and typhoid, and lockjaw, and more than a thousand other sicknesses and—mama, does He send them?”
“Oh, certainly, child, certainly. Of course.”
“What for?”
“Oh, to discipline us! Haven't I told you so, over and over again?”
“It's awful cruel, mama! And silly! and if I——”
“Hush, oh, hush! Do you want to bring the lightning?”
“You know the lightning did come last week, mama, and struck the new church, and burnt it down. Was it to discipline the church?”
(Wearily.) “Oh, I suppose so.”
“But it killed a hog that wasn't doing anything. Was it to discipline the hog, mama?”
“Dear child, don't you want to run out and play a while? If you would like to——”
“Mama, only think! Mr. Hollister says there isn't a bird, or fish, or reptile, or any other animal that hasn't got an enemy that Providence has sent to bite it and chase it and pester it and kill it and suck its blood and discipline it and make it good and religious. Is that true, mother—because if it is true why did Mr. Hollister laugh at it?”
“That Hollister is a scandalous person, and I don't want you to listen to anything he says.”
“Why, mama, he is very interesting, and I think he tries to be good. He says the wasps catch spiders and cram them down into their nests in the ground—alive, mama!—and there they live and suffer days and days and days, and the hungry little wasps chewing their legs and gnawing into their bellies all the time, to make them good and religious and praise God for His infinite mercies. I think Mr. Hollister is just lovely, and ever so kind; for when I asked him if he would treat a spider like that he said he hoped to be damned if he would; and then he——Dear mama, have you fainted! I will run and bring help! Now this comes of staying in town this hot weather.”
APPENDIX X.
A CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF MARK TWAIN'S WORK
PUBLISHED AND OTHERWISE—FROM 1851-1910
Note 1.—This is not a detailed bibliography, but merely a general list of Mark Twain's literary undertakings, in the order of performance, showing when, and usually where, the work was done, when and where first published, etc. An excellent Mark Twain bibliography has been compiled by Mr. Merle Johnson, to whom acknowledgments are due for important items.
Note 2.—Only a few of the more important speeches are noted. Volumes that are merely collections of tales or articles are not noted.
Note 3.—Titles are shortened to those most commonly in use, as “Huck Finn” or “Huck” for “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.”
Names of periodicals are abbreviated.
The initials U. E. stand for the “Uniform Edition” of Mark Twain's works.
The chapter number or numbers in the line with the date refers to the place in this work where the items are mentioned.
1851.
(See Chapter xviii of this work.)
Edited the Hannibal Journal during the absence of the owner and editor, Orion Clemens. Wrote local items for the Hannibal Journal. Burlesque of a rival editor in the Hannibal Journal. Wrote two sketches for The Sat. Eve. Post (Philadelphia). To MARY IN H-l. Hannibal Journal.
1852-53.
(See Chapter xviii.)
JIM WOLFE AND THE FIRE—Hannibal Journal. Burlesque of a rival editor in the Hannibal Journal.
1853.
(See Chapter xix.)
Wrote obituary poems—not published. Wrote first letters home.
1855-56.
(See Chapters xx and xxi.)
First after-dinner speech; delivered at a printers' banquet in Keokuk, Iowa. Letters from Cincinnati, November 16, 1856, signed “Snodgrass”—Saturday Post (Keokuk).
1857.
(See Chapter xxi.)
Letters from Cincinnati, March 16, 1857, signed “Snodgrass”—Saturday Post (Keokuk).
1858.
Anonymous contributions to the New Orleans Crescent and probably to St. Louis papers.
1859.
(See Chapter xxvii; also Appendix B.)
Burlesque of Capt. Isaiah Sellers—True Delta (New Orleans), May 8 or 9.
1861.
(See Chapters xxxiii to xxxv.)
Letters home, published in The Gate City (Keokuk).
1862.
(See Chapters xxxv to xxxviii.)
Letters and sketches, signed “Josh,” for the Territorial Enterprise (Virginia City, Nevada). REPORT OF THE LECTURE OF PROF. PERSONAL PRONOUN—Enterprise. REPORT OF A FOURTH OF JULY ORATION—Enterprise. THE PETRIFIED MAN—Enterprise. Local news reporter for the Enterprise from August.
1863.
(See Chapters xli to xliii; also Appendix C.)
Reported the Nevada Legislature for the Enterprise. First used the name “Mark Twain,” February 2. ADVICE TO THE UNRELIABLE—Enterprise. CURING A COLD—Enterprise. U. E. INFORMATION FOR THE MILLION—Enterprise. ADVICE TO GOOD LITTLE GIRLS—Enterprise. THE DUTCH NICK MASSACRE—Enterprise. Many other Enterprise sketches. THE AGED PILOT MAN (poem)—“ROUGHING IT.” U. E.
1864.
(See. Chapters xliv to xlvii.)
Reported the Nevada Legislature for the Enterprise. Speech as “Governor of the Third House.” Letters to New York Sunday Mercury. Local reporter on the San Francisco Call. Articles and sketches for the Golden Era. Articles and sketches for the Californian. Daily letters from San Francisco to the Enterprise. (Several of the Era and Californian sketches appear in SKETCHES NEW AND OLD. U. E.)
1865.
(See Chapters xlix to li; also Appendix E.)