Daily Arizona silver belt., 1907-01-10
AN ADVANCE PAYMENT.
Mark Twain, His Good Brother and
 the Broken Sugar Bowl.

the Broken sugar boWi.
 My mother had good deal of trou- ble with me, but think she enjoyed 1t. She had none at all with my brother Henry, who was two years younger than l. and I think that the unbroken
 monotony of his goodness and truth fulness and obedience would have been a burden to her but for the relief and variety which l furnished in the other direction. l was Il tonic. l was valu- able to her l never thought of it be
 fore but now l see 1t. never knew Henry to do vicious thing toward me or toward any one else, but he ire quently did righteous ones that cost me as heavily. Ii was his duty to report me when l needed reporting and neg lected to do it myself. and he was very faithful in discharging that duty He l Is Sid in Tom Sawyer" But Sid was not Henry Henry was very much finer and better boy than ever Sid was. It was Henry who called my moth CTS attention to the fact that the thread with which she had sewed my collar together to keep me from going in swimming had changed colo;. My mother would not have discoveied 1t | out for that. and she was manlfestly pioued when she recognized that that | prominent bt of circlrnstantial evi- | 6euce had escaped her sharp eye. That | detail probably added detail to my punishm zlt. It is human We gener- | ally visit O.. shortcomings on some body else n.n there is a possible ex- cuse for it. .odC no matter. took 1t out | of Henry. There Is always compensa- ton for such as are untustly used. l often took it out of him-sometimes as an advance payment for something which hadn't yet done. These were occasions when the opportunity was | too strong temptation, and I had to draw on the future. I did not need to copy this idea from my mother and probably didn't. still. she wrought upon that principle upon occasion
 If the incident of the broken sugar bowl Is in '"rom Sawyer'-I don't re
 member whether 1t is or not-that Is an example of 1t. Henry never stole sug ar He took 1t openly from the bowl
 His mother knew he wouldn't take sug ar when she wasn't looking, but she had her doubts about me. Not exactly doubts, either She knew very well would. One day when she was mol present Henry took sugar from heI prized and precious old English sugar bowl, which was an heirloom in the family, and he managed to break tho bowl. It was the first time had evel had a chance to tell anything on him and l was inexpressibly glad l told him was going to tell on him. but h' was not disturbed. When my mother came in and saw the bowl lying on tho floor in fragments she was speeches. for a minute. I allowed that silence tC work judged 1t would increase th' effect. l was waiting for her 10 asl "Who did that?" so that l could fetcl out my news But 1t was an error oi calculation. When she got through will , her silence ahc didn't ask anything 7 about it. She merely gave me cracl on the skull with her thlmble that
 felt all the dry down to my heels. Thel I broke out " ;h my injured innocence expecting to make her very sorry tha she had punirhed the wrong one. l ex pected her 10 do somC thing remorsefn and pathetic. I told her that was no the one-it was Henry But there wa
 no upheaval She said without emo tion: Its al r'ght. It isn't any mat , ter. You deserve if for something you've done that didn't know about
 and if you haven't done it, why, thel you deserve it for something that yol
 are going 10 do that I shan't hea
 about."-From Mark Twain's Autobi ography in North American Review.