

Albert Bigelow Paine

With a family of eight, now, including Jennie, the slavegirl, more room was badly needed, and he began building without delay.  The result was not a mansion, by any means, being still of the one-story pattern, but it was more commodious than the tiny two-room affair.  The rooms were larger, and there was at least one ell, or extension, for kitchen and dining-room uses.  This house, completed in 1836, occupied by the Clemens family during the remainder of the years spent in Florida, was often in later days pointed out as Mark Twain’s birthplace.  It missed that distinction by a few months, though its honor was sufficient in having sheltered his early childhood.—­[This house is no longer standing.  When it was torn down several years ago, portions of it were carried off and manufactured into souvenirs.  Mark Twain himself disclaimed it as his birthplace, and once wrote on a photograph of it:  “No, it is too stylish, it is not my birthplace.”]



It was not a robust childhood.  The new baby managed to go through the winter—­a matter of comment among the family and neighbors.  Added strength came, but slowly; “Little Sam,” as they called him, was always delicate during those early years.



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