Notes: HONEST SAM was told by Samuel Clemens in his autobiography.  Twain concludes Chapter 30 with these words, “Now then, that is the tale. Some of it is true.”  

And I add: that is Sam’s tale, more-or-less. You can read the tale in his own words in The Autobiography of Mark Twain, edited by Charles Neider, Harper and Row, New York, 1959, pp 155-159.