laugh hung on a hair-trigger, to get off, naturally and easily during
the course of the evening, as many laughs as he could. He begged a
popular citizen and his wife to take a conspicuous seat in a box, so
that everybody could see them. He explained that when he needed help,
he would turn toward her and smile, as a signal, that he had given birth
to an obscure joke. Then, if ever, was her time--not to investigate,
but to respond!

The fateful night found him in the depths of dejection. But heartened
up by a crowded house, full even to the aisles, he bravely set in and
proceeded to capture the house. His claquers hammered madly whenever
the very feeblest joke showed its head. Sawyer supported their
herculean efforts with bursts of stentorian laughter. As Mark
explained, not without a touch of pride, inferior jokes never fared so
royally before. But his hour of humiliation was at hand. On delivering
a bit of serious matter with impressive unction, to which the audience
listened with rapt interest, he glanced involuntarily, as if for her
approval, at his friend in the box. He remembered the compact, but it
was too late--he smiled in spite of himself. Forth came her ringing
laugh, peal after peal, which touched off the whole audience: the
explosion was immense! Sawyer choked with laughter, and the bludgeons
performed like pile-drivers. The little morsel of pathos was ruined;
but what matter, so long as the audience took it as an intentional joke,
and applauded it with unparalleled enthusiasm. Mark wisely let it go at
that!

Reading through 'The Innocents Abroad' after many years, I find that it
has not lost its power to provoke the most side-splitting laughter; and
the same may be said of 'A Tramp Abroad' and 'Following the Equator',
which, whilst not so boisterously comical, exhibit greater mastery and