James Baquet

Samuel Clemens, better known as Mark Twain, is widely known for such books as “Tom Sawyer” and “Huckleberry Finn.” But many of his shorter stories and essays packed a powerful punch as well.

One of these, written in a Southern dialect, is an anecdote entitled “A True Story, Word for Word as I Heard It.” It tells about a conversation Twain had with a Black woman he calls “Aunt Rachel,” the cook at his sister-in-law’s farm. As the family relaxed on the porch in the summer evening, Twain noticed that Aunt Rachel was cheerful, and laughed easily even when teased by the family members.

He said to her, “Aunt Rachel, how is it that you’ve lived 60 years and never had any trouble?”

With that, she got serious, and after being assured that his question was asked “in earnest,” she told him this story.

She had been born in slavery, and later married and had seven children. Later still, Aunt Rachel’s owner sold off Aunt Rachel and her family members separately, like so much cattle. She fought to keep her youngest son Henry, but they took him from her at last.

The Civil War came, and Aunt Rachel became a cook in a mansion occupied by Union officers. Unbeknownst to her, Henry had joined the Union army and was on the staff the very colonel for whom she worked!

One night a Black regiment had a dance party in her large kitchen. When one particularly saucy young man was teasing her, she rose up and said, “I wasn’t born in the mash to be fooled by trash! I’m one of the old Blue Hen’s Chickens!” — a phrase referring to people from Maryland, which her own mother had often used. The young man got a strange look in his eyes.

The next morning, as Aunt Rachel was cooking breakfast, she bent over to take something from the oven when that same young man’s face appeared under her, looking up into her eyes! She dropped the pan she was holding, and examined his wrist and forehead, where she found scars matching those Henry had received as a boy. “Boy,” she cried, “if you aren’t my Henry, what are you doing with these scars? Praise the Lord, I have my own again!”

“Oh, no, Mister C.,” she concluded her story, “I haven’t had any trouble. And no joy!”

Vocabulary:

Which word above means:

1. with sincere intent

2. boiled grain fed to farm animals

3. without one’s knowledge

4. group of soldiers

5. short account of an event, often amusing

6. had a great impact

7. lived in

8. made certain

9. rude in a playful way

10. joint between the hand and the arm