Mrs. Clemens came near persuading me to go, & take her; but dear me, although I very much wanted to go, myself, I knew it wouldn’t answer at all. The summer is my only effective working-season; & as I have been hindered a great deal since we arrived here, I am so much behind hand that I dare not venture to spare a day out of what the few weeks that are left me. A few years ago I was growing old & rheumatic; but that is all changed, now: for now I have grown old & rheumatic; & so a long journey in the heats of summer is become formidable to me; nevertheless I would undertake it for the sake of the pleasure which my wife & I would find yonder at the end of it, as well as for the sake of any I might hope to give to others there, if I were but free of the necessity of holding my grip on my work & sticking steadfastly to it. Some day, I hope, you will change your dinner-hour to winter; then I am likely to be close by & idle; also hungry.

Both of us send our best thanks for your hospitable offers, & our sincere regrets that we must stay away.