I  sincerely  trust  that  neither  you  nor  any  of  your  readers,  and
espedally  none  with  families,  may  ever  be  placed  in  such  seem-

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MARK    TWAIN

ing  direct  proximity  to  death  while  obliged  to  decide  the  one
question  I  was  compelled  to — viz.:  What  should  I  do — I,  a  man
of  family,  and  not  as  Mr.  Winters  is,  "alone."

[The  reader  is  requested  not  to  skip  the  foUowing. — M.  T.:]

STRATEGY  AND  MESMERISM

To  gMn  time  for  further  reflection,  and  hoping  that  by  a
seeming  acquiescence  I  might  regain  my  personal  liberty,  at  least
till  I  could  give  an  alarm,  or  take  advantage  of  some  momentary
inadvertence  of  Winters,  and  then  without  a  cowardly  flight
escape,  I  resolved  to  write  a  certain  kind  of  retraction,  but
previously  had  inwardly  decided

First. — That  I  would  studiously  avoid  every  action  which
might  be  construed  into  the  drawing  of  a  weapon,  even  by  a  self-
infuriated  man,  no  matter  what  amount  of  insult  might  be  heaped
upon  me,  tot  it  seemed  to  me  that  this  great  excess  of  compound
profanity,  foulness  and  epithet  must  be  more  than  a  mere  in-
dulgence, and  therefore  must  have  some  object.  "Surely  in  vmn
the  net  is  spread  In  the  sight  of  any  bird."  Therefore,  as  before
without  thought,  I  thereafter  by  intent  kept  my  hands  away
from  my  pockets,  and  generally  in  sight  and  spread  upon  my
knees.
Second. — I  resolved  to  make  no  motion  with  my  arms  or  hands
which  could  possibly  be  construed  into  aggression.
Third. — I  resolved  completely  to  govern  my  outward  manner
and  suppress  indignation.  To  do  this,  I  must  govern  my  spirit.
