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Scattered among notationsabout the weather and the tedious mining-camp meals lies an entry noting a story he had heard that day-an entry that would determine his course forever: "Coleman with his jumping frog-bet stranger 50-stranger had no frog, and C. got him one-in the meantime stranger filled C. 's frog full of shot and he couldn't jump. The stranger's frog won." Retold with his descriptive genius, the story was printed in newspapers across the United States and became known as "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County." Mark Twain's national reputation was now well established as "the wild humorist of the Pacific slope."
在雜亂無章的有關天氣情況和乏味無趣的有關礦區飯食情況的記錄條目中夾著一條敘述當天聽到的一則故事的記錄--這條記錄決定了他一生事業的發展方向："科爾曼用他的跳蛙--與陌生人賭50美元--陌生人沒有跳蛙，科爾曼去給他弄來一只--陌生人利用這段時間將科的跳蛙肚子塞滿鉛彈，這樣，科的跳蛙跳不起來，陌生人的跳蛙便得以獲勝。"
Two year s later the opportunity came for him to take a distinctly American look at the Old World. In New York City the steamship Quaker City prepared to sail on a pleasure cruise to Europe and the Holy Land. For the first time, a sizablegroup of United States citizens planned to journey as tourists-a milestone,of sorts, in a country's development. Twain was assigned to accompany them, as correspondent for a California newspaper. If readers expected the usual glowing travelogue,they were sorely surprised.
經過馬克吐溫的生花妙筆改寫之后，這個故事登在美國各地的報紙上，成了家喻戶曉的"卡拉韋拉斯縣有名的跳蛙"。至此，馬克o吐溫作為"太平洋海岸狂放的幽默大師"的聲望已在全國范圍內牢固地確立起來了。
Unimpressed by the Sultan of Turkey, for example, he reported, “one could set a trap anywhere and catch a dozen abler men in a night.” Casually he debunked revered artists and art treasures, and took unholy verbalshots at the Holy Land. Back home, more newspapers began printing his articles. America laughed with him. Upon his return to the States the book version of his travels, The Innocents Abroad, became an instant best-seller.
兩年之后，他得到了一個以美國人特有的眼光去觀察歐洲舊大陸的機會。在紐約市，"費城號"蒸汽船準備進行一次到歐洲和圣地的觀光航行。這是美國人第一次組織較大規模的團體觀光旅行--也可以看作是一個國家發展史上的某種里程碑。馬克o吐溫作為加利福尼亞一家報紙的記者被委派隨同觀光團采訪。如果讀者們期望能讀到有關這次旅行見聞的神采飛揚的描寫的話，那他們是要倍感意外的。
