| One day when I was playing on a loose log
which I supposed was attached to a raft--but wasn't--it tilted me into Bear
Creek. And when I had been under water twice and was coming up to make the
third and fatal descent my fingers appeared above the water and that slave
woman seized them and pulled me out. ... I was drowned seven times after
that before I learned to swim--once in Bear Creek and six times in the Mississippi.
I do not know who the people were who interfered with the intentions of
a Providence wiser than themselves but I hold a grudge against them yet. - Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol 1 (2010) |
 AI image created by Barbara Schmidt |
 Young Sam Clemens being rescued by a black slave woman. Illustration by Emlen McConnell from SUNDAY MAGAZINE, August 2, 1908 |
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