Mark Twain, fully for the first time, knew how to let life carry its own rhythms. The funny thing is that he did not particularly intend to do this. He put away the manuscript for several years after writing the scene at the end of chapter 16 in which the steamboat, showing its “red-hot iron teeth,” runs the raft down. When he finally took the book up again, to describe the comedy and horror of the Grangerfords' existence, he was tougher on the society along the river than he had ever expected to be, for starting with chapter 17 he had to describe not only the folly of “quality” folk like the
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