Read "A Double Barrelled Detective Story" by Mark Twain online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
In 1886 a young woman was living in a modest house near a secluded New England village, with no company but a little boy about five years old. She did her own work, she discouraged acquaintanceships, and had none. The butcher, the baker, and the others that served her could tell the villagers nothing about her further than that her name was Stillman, and that she called the child Archy. Whence she came they had not been able to find out, but they said she talked like a Southerner. The child had no playmates and no comrade, and no teacher but the mother. She taught him diligently and intelligently, and was satisfied with the results -- even a little proud of them. One day Archy said,
"Mamma, am I different from other children?"