Chapters 5-6 Summary

Twain now turns to the subject of his ancestry. He feels blessed, except that he is, unfortunately, vain about it. It has been reported that he had an ancestor that helped sentence Charles I to death.

When his parents married, neither of them had much property. They settled in eastern Tennessee where four of Twain's older siblings were born., They did not live long enough for Twain to know them. He was born later in Missouri, he says, because Missouri was a new state and needed some attractions.

When his father died, he left the family 75,000 acres of undeveloped land in Jamestown, Tennessee. One cousin, James Lampton, was sure there the land was worth millions of dollars.. He turned out to be right, but the family never saw those millions.

Twain used his cousin, James Lampton, as the basis for the...