The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson

“I will set down a tale as it was told to me by one who had it of his father, which latter had it of HIS father, this last having in like manner had it of HIS father— and so on, back and still back, three hundred  years and more, the fathers transmitting it to the sons and so preserving it. It may be history, it may be only ma legend, a tradition. It may have happened, it may not have happened: but it COULD have happened. It may  be that the wise and the learned believed it in the old days; it may be that only the unlearned and the simple  loved it and credited it.”