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."
在杂乱无章的有关天气情况和乏味无趣的有关矿区饭食情况的记录条目中夹着一条叙述当天听到的一则故事的记录--这条记录决定了他一生事业的发展方向："科尔曼用他的跳蛙--与陌生人赌50美元--陌生人没有跳蛙，科尔曼去给他弄来一只--陌生人利用这段时间将科的跳蛙肚子塞满铅弹，这样，科的跳蛙跳不起来，陌生人的跳蛙便得以获胜。"
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.
经过马克吐温的生花妙笔改写之后，这个故事登在美国各地的报纸上，成了家喻户晓的"卡拉韦拉斯县有名的跳蛙"。至此，马克o吐温作为"太平洋海岸狂放的幽默大师"的声望已在全国范围内牢固地确立起来了。
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.
两年之后，他得到了一个以美国人特有的眼光去观察欧洲旧大陆的机会。在纽约市，"费城号"蒸汽船准备进行一次到欧洲和圣地的观光航行。这是美国人第一次组织较大规模的团体观光旅行--也可以看作是一个国家发展史上的某种里程碑。马克o吐温作为加利福尼亚一家报纸的记者被委派随同观光团采访。如果读者们期望能读到有关这次旅行见闻的神采飞扬的描写的话，那他们是要倍感意外的。