Morals and Memory

In this speech, Mark Twain muses on the capricious nature of man’s memory, particularly regarding how he views his past. To illustrate, he tells a tale from this youth about the time he stole a watermelon only to open it and discover it was green. While his aging mother remembers him as a precocious boy because of this event, he believes he did the watermelon seller some good when he returned the unripe fruit to show him the inadequacies of his product. This charming speech shows Twain for the humorous moralist he was, always aware of his own shortcomings and ready to poke fun at them for public benefit.