You have got the same curious ideas that all novices have—you must stipulate beforehandⒶemendation whic whatⒶemendation shall be done in case you prove a literary treasure. Hang it, man, ten thousand such stipulations would be worthless. It is simply absurd for one man to try to bargain such a thing out with another—your work must not only show you to be worth more money, but must is itselfⒶemendation compel its price. IfⒶemendation you would rather be slave all night in St Louis for $8 more a month than do easy & gentlemanly work in Hartford in daylight, I applaud your wisdom & say nothing against it. I will only remark that Bliss offers you, as I as Ⓐemendation exactly three times as much as the work is worth. I would take the job myself at less money if I were living in Hartford & my name did not appear as editor.

I have never intended to intimate that this work was worth $100 a month, but meant to intimate that it could be made a stepping stone & opportunity to make you known & valuable. My name to it is what Bliss was willing to pay $4,000 for.

But I will remark that when I discovered, before Pamela went away, that your present pay was $108 a month instead of $100, I wrote b Ⓐemendation Bliss that if you went there he could pay you $108 a month & charge the 8 $8 to me. But I would rather live on $100 a month & live like a human being, than have 8 $8 more & live like an owl.1explanatory note

I do resent that idea of stipulating for advance of wages in case a man is worth. Ⓐemendation it. I haven’t had anything incense me so in six months. Might as well stipulate that one should have two h golden harps hereafter before know under certain conditions, before finding out whether he is going to be able to play acceptably on one first.

I have thought that the proper way w to get you east will be for the “Democrat” people to get free passes for both of you overⒶemendation the roads clear to Hartford.2explanatory note They can do it easily & th ought Ⓐemendation to do it. I say all this because I find my expenses in one way or another are stretching up in the neighborhood of a thousand dollars a month, & I have foolishly crippled myself by paying one man $5,000 who was not in a hurry & by lending another man $4,000 who pays me nothing more than legal interest.3explanatory note But And I am looking for a heavy bills to come in during the next few weeks—a four or five hundred-dollar doctor’s bill, a sixty-dollar nurse bill, a hundred & seventy-dollars sleigh-bill, a two-hundred dollar life-insurance bill,4explanatory note a three-hundred dollar carpenter’sⒶemendation bill, & a dozen or two of twenty-five dollar debts, & we owe the servants seven hundred dollars which they can call for at any time—& I am sitting still with idle hands—for Livy is very sick & I do not believe the baby will live five days.5explanatory note

Under which circumstances get those free passes if you can, but if you can’t, then let me know & I will provide the money. I didn’t expect quite such an avalanche of bills at a time when my household expenses are so greatly augmented. I will not allow me myselfⒶemendation to be caught in such a close place again. Of course I can borrow all the money I want, but I will saw wood before I will borrow.

Do just as you please about the Tenn. land—always.

I am glad you have sent such full Nevada notes6explanatory note—though as they have just come & I am stealing a few minutes from the sick room to answer a pile of business letters, I haven’t read a sentence of them yet