Clemens.What you have said, there, will convince anybody that reads it;a body cannot help being convinced by it.That is the kind of a review to have; the doubtful man; even the prejudiced man, is persuaded and succumbs.
What a queer blunder that was, about the baronet.I can't quite see how I ever made it.There was an opulent abundance of things I didn't know;and consequently no need to trench upon the vest-pocketful of things Idid know, to get material for a blunder.
Charley Warren Stoddard has gone to the Sandwich Islands permanently.
Lucky devil.It is the only supremely delightful place on earth.It does seem that the more advantage a body doesn't earn, here, the more of them God throws at his head.This fellow's postal card has set the vision of those gracious islands before my mind, again, with not a leaf withered, nor a rainbow vanished, nor a sun-flash missing from the waves, and now it will be months, I reckon, before I can drive it away again.
It is beautiful company, but it makes one restless and dissatisfied.
With love and thanks, Yrs ever, MARK.
The review mentioned in this letter was of The Prince and the Pauper.What the queer" blunder" about the baronet was, the present writer confesses he does not know; but perhaps a careful reader could find it, at least in the early edition; very likely it was corrected without loss of time.
Clemens now and then found it necessary to pay a visit to Canada in the effort to protect his copyright.He usually had a grand time on these trips, being lavishly entertained by the Canadian literary fraternity.In November, 1881, he made one of these journeys in the interest of The Prince and the Pauper, this time with Osgood, who was now his publisher.In letters written home we get a hint of his diversions.The Monsieur Frechette mentioned was a Canadian poet of considerable distinction."Clara" was Miss Clara Spaulding, of Elmira, who had accompanied Mr.and Mrs.Clemens to Europe in 1873, and again in 1878.Later she became Mrs.John B.Staachfield, of New York City.Her name has already appeared in these letters many times.
To Mrs.Clemens, in Hartford:
MONTREAL, Nov.28 '81.
Livy darling, you and Clara ought to have been at breakfast in the great dining room this morning.English female faces, distinctive English costumes, strange and marvelous English gaits--and yet such honest, honorable, clean-souled countenances, just as these English women almost always have, you know.Right away--But they've come to take me to the top of Mount Royal, it being a cold, dry, sunny, magnificent day.Going in a sleigh.
Yours lovingly, SAML.
To Mrs.Clemens, in Hartford:
MONTREAL, Sunday, November 27, 1881.
Livy dear, a mouse kept me awake last night till 3 or 4 o'clock--so I am lying abed this morning.I would not give sixpence to be out yonder in the storm, although it is only snow.
[The above paragraph is written in the form of a rebus illustrated with various sketches.]
There--that's for the children--was not sure that they could read writing; especially jean, who is strangely ignorant in some things.
I can not only look out upon the beautiful snow-storm, past the vigorous blaze of my fire; and upon the snow-veiled buildings which I have sketched; and upon the churchward drifting umbrellas; and upon the buffalo-clad cabmen stamping their feet and thrashing their arms on the corner yonder: but I also look out upon the spot where the first white men stood, in the neighborhood of four hundred years ago, admiring the mighty stretch of leafy solitudes, and being admired and marveled at by an eager multitude of naked savages.The discoverer of this region, and namer of it, Jacques Cartier, has a square named for him in the city.Iwish you were here; you would enjoy your birthday, I think.
I hoped for a letter, and thought I had one when the mail was handed in, a minute ago, but it was only that note from Sylvester Baxter.You must write--do you hear?--or I will be remiss myself.
Give my love and a kiss to the children, and ask them to give you my love and a kiss from SAML.
To Mrs.Clemens, in Hartford:
QUEBEC, Sunday.'81.