A True Story : Mark Twain

 A True Story by Mark Twain

 

The story begins with a narrator who has taken a room in a neglected building in Manhattan. As the night wears on, he describes feeling a 'superstitious dread.' He is briefly comforted by his fire, but after it dies down he feels lonely. He falls asleep with a foreboding feeling.

He wakes to something pulling the blankets off him. He pulls them back over his head only to have them pulled back again. This happens again, and he hears a groan. He then hears heavy footsteps moving away from him towards the door and he is relieved.

The narrator decides that this has been a dream, and he feels comforted--until he sees a giant footprint in the ashes near the fire. Once again terrified, the narrator hears slamming doors, more footsteps, and dragging chains in the corridor outside his room. Eventually, the noises make their way back into his room, and the narrator sees three 'spheres' of light above him.

After the 'Thing' leaves, the narrator gets up to light the lamp. As the light lifts his spirits, he again begins to doubt the existence of the Thing. But as the light dims, he hears it approach again and is frightened. He finally sees human features emerge from the gloom, and he recognizes the intruder as the Cardiff Giant.

The narrator is relieved as he regards the giant's friendly face, and he asks why the giant did not simply announce himself in the first place. The gaslights come up.

The narrator warns him not to sit down on the furniture, but he does, destroying two chairs and the bed. The giant begins to cry, and the narrator gives him a pipe and a blanket and stokes the fire. The narrator asks him why he has lesions on his feet and the giant tells him that he got them 'roosting' under Newell's farm. He admits that he is the ghost of the Cardiff Giant and complains that he is tired from haunting what he thinks is the site of his burial.

The narrator tells him that he is mistaken, that his actual body is being displayed in Albany, not Manhattan. The giant is humiliated and hastily departs with the narrator's blanket and pipe.