Answer:
The answer is explained below.
Step-by-step explanation:
The question refers to this excerpt:
No girl could withstand his charms. He "cut out" every boy in the village. When his boat blew up at last, it diffused a tranquil contentment among us such as we had not known for months. But when he came home the next week, alive, renowned, and appeared in church all battered up and bandaged, a shining hero, stared at and wondered over by everybody, it seemed to us that the partiality of Providence for an undeserving reptile had reached a point where it was open to criticism.
Mark Twain was an American writer, famous by writing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, among many others. Understatement means to represent something less strongly than what it really is. In the excerpt, it is expressed first in "tranquil contentment among us such as we had not known for months," where happiness of other fellows is apparently understated pointing out that he had taken all the girls attention in town. Another example is "it seemed to us that the partiality of Providence for an undeserving reptile had reached a point where it was open to criticism" which explains the feelings (specially disgust) of people around him.