by Mark Twain, 1894
This is the second story in the Pudd’nhead Wilson book. It’s about true Siamese twins, Luigi and Angelo, and it’s crazy! He presents them in all seriousness, though. They come to live with Aunt Patsy Cooper and her daughter, Rowena. The whole town comes to love them. One is serious (Angelo) and the other is a carouser (Luigi). They have two heads, 4 arms and one pair of legs. Each twin gets the pair of legs for exactly one week. It changes at the stroke of midnight, no matter what time zone they are in, on Saturday night. Angelo gets drunk when Luigi drinks. Luigi wants to drink and carouse and stay up all night. Angelo wants to become a Baptist, but Luigi is afraid the baptism will drown him. It’s weird and a bit crazy, and in the end, the town hangs Luigi, because he was guilty of something. “And so ends the history of ‘Those Extraordinary Twins.'”