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This list records every reading that has been adopted from a source other than the copy-text (emendation). It also records every rejected variant found in authoritative sources other than the copy-text (historical collation). The following readings are exceptions: (1) page numbers in the table of contents and the list of illustrations are silently changed to refer to the present edition; (2) picture captions are drawn from the first American edition and, for thirteen illustrations on pages 107–23, from the first American edition of Life on the Mississippi, but only departures from these two sources are noted as emendations; (3) superscript letters are silently lowered to the line; and (4) the style of the opening words of chapters, which appear in the present edition in small capitals and with no paragraph indention as an editorial convention, is not recorded as variant from the copy-text. All manuscript ampersands are transcribed in entries as “and.” Mark Twain’s periods after chapter headings are styled as bullets in Kemble’s illustrations; such bullets are always reported as periods in this list. Mechanical errors in inscription resulting from incomplete revision in the manuscript are noted only in Alterations in the Manuscript. In each emendations entry—marked by a square bullet to the left of the page and line cue—the reading of this edition is given first, with its source identified by a symbol in parentheses (or symbols, if multiple authoritative texts agree); this adopted reading is separated by a dot from the rejected copy-text reading on the right, thus: “bobbing (A, Cent) • nodding (MS2)”. Although the combined MS is copy-text throughout, its subsections are here identified, and each change from one to the other is noted on the list, signaled by a row of asterisks. The following symbols identify the divisions of the copy-text and all other authoritative texts included in this list, each of which (except for C) is more fully defined in the Description of Texts:

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The editorially determined spelling of any compound word hyphenated ambiguously at the end of a line in the copy-text is recorded here, not in a separate list. The symbol for the present edition (C) follows any emendation whose source is not an authoritative text. A caret (⁁) indicates the absence of a punctuation mark. Thus the entry “places, (MS1a) ⁁ (A)” reports that a comma follows “places” in the copy-text but not in the first American edition, and that the editors have not adopted the reading of A as an authorial revision or correction. A vertical rule (“ferry-|boat”) indicates the end of a line; a double vertical rule (“black- || berries”) indicates the end of a page; a slash mark (“suppose/spose”) separates alternate readings left uncanceled in the manuscript. Editorial comment is always italicized and enclosed in square brackets, thus: “not in.” Entries marked with a heavy asterisk (✱) are discussed in the Textual Notes. Citations are by page and line or, when necessary, by page, column, and line: xxxix(1).1.