This collation records all variant substantive readings among the following texts:

MS      Mark Twain's manuscript
Pr      Publisher's prospectus for the first American edition
A      First American edition
E      First English edition
C      First Canadian edition

In each entry, a dot separates the adopted reading on the left from the rejected variant or variants on the right. Variant states of a single edition are designated by lowercase letters following the symbol for the edition. Thus, Aa and Ab represent the first and second states of the first American edition. Likewise, Ea, Eb, and Ec represent the first, second, and third states of the first English edition. When consecutive states agree on a reading, they are listed thus: Ea-b. When nonconsecutive states agree, they are listed thus: Ea, Ec.

Texts that agree substantively do not necessarily agree in all their accidental or stylistic features; in the entry at 285.9, for example, the first English edition reads “honours” not “honors.”

When a reading occurs for the first time in the present text (among the texts included in the collation), it is reported first with the Iowa-California symbol (I-C) and then followed with the historical information (see the entry at 64.36).

If contemporary dictionaries indicate that two spellings are simply alternative, or are English and American spellings of the same word, the difference is not considered substantive, and they are not included in this list—“center” and “centre,” for instance. But if the dictionary assigns separate listings or gives distinct definitions to the words—as in “farther” and “further” or “O” and “Oh”—they are included here. Likewise, forms such as “sith” and “since” or “troth” and “truth” will be found in this list.

When Mark Twain revised a passage in the manuscript and then canceled it in proof, the record of his manuscript revisions is reported in the list of alterations and keyed to this table. A superscript number within an entry (see 237.22–23) refers the reader to the list of alterations. Information in square brackets, such as not in, is editorial. A vertical rule (word | word) indicates the end of a line in the manuscript. Entries marked with an asterisk are discussed in the textual notes.