A Telephonic Conversation by Mark Twain. Short summary

5 seconds

The author noticed that sitting next to a person talking on the phone is a lot of fun. You can’t hear the lines being answered. And if the conversation is between two women, it becomes mysterious.

1 minute

A relative asked the author to put her through to the Bagleys’ house. He complied with her request and continued working on the story. But the work did not stick. And the fault was the remarks shouted by his relative (she could not believe that you can speak softly on the phone). The author was embarrassed by the fact that he could not hear the answers to his relative’s words on the other end of the line, so he was involuntarily lost in conjecture.

The ladies jumped from topic to topic like nimble monkeys. From the cookbook they moved on to Deuteronomy and Psalms, from there to new trends in dress fashions, then to town gossip and then back to recipes.

Throughout the conversation, the ladies repeatedly said goodbye to each other, but continued the conversation. The author also picked up something about himself: his relative carelessly dropped the «No, we’re not bothering HIM,» and continued to chat.

When she finally hung up, she complained that her arm was tired of holding it.