24 April 1883 • Hartford, Conn. (MS: CtHMTH, UCCL 02375)
I am a great deal stronger Ⓐemendation than I was a week ago. O. L. C
Your loving letter touched Livy deeply (both of us, indeed,) & did her more good than all the day’s medicines. I know, & she knows, that a fortnight under the home roof, with the home faces around, & the home affections & tendernesses shining out of them, would bring healing & health to Livy quicker than all other cures combined; & for a while, it was our dream to try it the moment she should be strong enough to travel; but now that Livy’s strength has really begun to dribble perceptibly back, she is afraid to venture: for it would be small benefit to her if the children were along; wh Ⓐemendation & to leave them behind in this town whose death-rate has been for months just double what it ought in reason to be, is a thing which she can contemplate, & has contemplated—contemplating is easy—but at the same time it is a thing which you & I know she isn’t ever going to do. For a while I actually thought she would; but when I saw by the paper this morning that the Hartford death-list for the month of March reached the startling & disgraceful figure of 89, I no longer wanted her to venture away & risk the children here. We shall not forget your generous words & your loving invitation, nor let our appreciation of it fall dim or lose value; but I believe, with Livy, whose judgment is always good in such matters, that she had better stand to her post, now, & do the best she can in the circumstances, until the time for the summer flight shall arrive.
We are greatly relieved & rejoiced to glean from your letter that mother has improved; for we have been feeling uneasy on her account.
Charley dear, I cannot express to you how much I value your loving letter. Mr Clemens and I both had (as the children say) “tears in our eyes when we read it. I want desperately to go to Elmira and your letter makes me want to go more than ever—but I feel that it is not best. Susy was quite sick the other night with sore throat and fever and I was very thankful that I was here. There is so much scarlet fever about that it makes me anxious about the children. With warm love to Mother Ida & yourself I am most lovingly
O. L. C.
References
- Mark Twain House and Museum, Hartford, Conn.
- Machlis, Paul, ed. Union Catalog of Clemens Letters. Edited by Paul Machlis. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press. [In some cases, UCCL catalog numbers cited in this volume supersede those assigned in 1986 and reflect corrections or additions to the catalog since publication. An updated version of the catalog can be consulted via the Letters Search page at MTPO.] 1986
- Microfilm Edition of Mark Twain’s Previously Unpublished Letters. Prepared by Anh Quynh Bui, Victor Fischer, Michael B. Frank, Robert H. Hirst, Lin Salamo, and Harriet Elinor Smith. 8 vols. Berkeley: The Bancroft Library. 2001
MS, CtHMTH.
MicroPUL, reel 2.