The Strange Request Sparks Adventures

Mark Twain wrote in 1869 in Innocents Abroad: “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one's lifetime.”?

“The Strange Request” introduces Alex with a need for nurture and a full life. His parents kept him sequestered for years for unusual reasons. An older sister moved away from home, taking...